DailyDirt: Another Golden Era Of Spaceflight Ahead..?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Successfully re-using a rocket seems to be on the cusp of being an economically practical technology. The traditional aerospace industry is going to see a bit more competition from cheaper rockets that can still launch satellites into high orbit. Private space companies are starting to catch up with NASA's experience, but the business is still tricky because there's always a chance a very expensive rocket will just explode on the launchpad.

• Being a test pilot for a private space flight company requires flying skills most pilots don't pick up flying a Cessna. Military pilots know how to fly in a tight formation and might have experience flying upside down or in other extreme situations. More civilian pilots are going to need to train to get the "right stuff" in order to fly spaceships. [url]
• At the 32nd Space Symposium, plenty of aerospace companies were present, competing to build next generation rockets to get into orbit and beyond. SpaceX, Blue Origin and others are trying new fuels and 3D printing techniques to make rockets cheaper and more quickly, so that rockets can be re-used or replaced within weeks, instead of months. [url]
• A crowdfunded Russian satellite could become the brightest "star" in the sky soon. The Mayak (Beacon) satellite project is planning to put a 16-square-meter tetrahedron-shaped reflector in orbit, and it could be launched before the end of the year. Larger versions of such a reflector could do some crazy things like direct sunlight to parts of the earth -- for longer days or other Bond-villain-esque schemes. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: crowdfunding, leo, manned missions, mayak, rockets, satellite, space, space exploration
Companies: blue origin, nasa, spacex

American Airlines Lawsuit Suggests It Too Thinks GoGo In-Flight Broadband Sucks

from the monopolies-lecturing-monopolies dept

Over the last five years GoGo has effectively cornered about 80% of the in-flight broadband market, allowing the company to lag a little bit when it comes to giving a damn about customer satisfaction. And while the 3 Mbps per plane is starting to grow a little long in the tooth, the company has been raising prices for the service slowly but dramatically (though filters, throttling, and fake SSL certs are still free of charge).

That's something GoGo CEO Micheal wasn't all that apologetic for last year when fielding complaints that GoGo had effectively mutated into "Comcast at 35,000 feet":

“We’re starting to have millions of users, so it’s getting more and more congested, and we have raised prices, which you typically do when you have more demand than you have supply,” he said. “There’s nothing to apologize for. We have trouble finding a business in America that does anything differently.”

Apparently American Airlines, no stranger to not apologizing for awful service, thinks there's definitely something to apologize for. The airline has filed a lawsuit in Texas (pdf) stating the company will be making use of a contract clause to switch to a better in-flight broadband alternative. The full lawsuit offers a few reasons for the shift, most notably that customers paying an arm and a leg to share 3 Mbps of bandwidth aren't particularly happy about it. Some new satellite-based alternatives are emerging, which American thinks would be a better fit for customers who want the Internet to work:

In contrast with Gogo’s legacy air-to-ground system that uses cell towers, many of these new competitors offer faster and cheaper in-flight connectivity services using satellite-based technology. Whereas Gogo’s system provides 3 Mbps (or at most, 10 Mbps) of bandwidth shared among all users on a flight, and blocks most video content, these new satellite-based services offer 12 Mbps per device—more than enough for passengers to stream music, movies, and television. Also, with antennas facing up to satellites, instead of down to cell towers, these competitors can offer gate-to-gate WiFi access for customers, even over oceans.

Granted some of this is just the laws of physics; delivering a consistent, quality broadband signal at 30,000 feet isn't exactly cheap or easy, and in-flight services regardless of technology will always be relatively expensive and throttled. Still, it's pretty clear there's some captive-market apathy at play for GoGo, which is facing a 2014 class action for violating antitrust law (pdf), and recently settled another class action accusing the company of repeatedly billing customers who thought they were only signing up for one month of service.

American claims this new lawsuit was necessary after GoGo effectively ignored the company's previous notices that it wanted to switch operators. A GoGo SEC filing suggests the company doesn't deny the contract clause exists, but insists the company is working on its own, 2ku-based satellite broadband platform (which should offer closer to 70 Mbps per plane):

Earlier this month, American notified Gogo that it considers a competitor’s connectivity service to offer a material improvement over our early generation air to ground service with respect to a portion of American’s fleet representing approximately 200 aircraft. We plan to submit a competing proposal to install our latest satellite technology - 2Ku - on this fleet. We believe that 2Ku is the best performing technology in the market and look forward to discussing our offer with American.

In other words, however the lawsuit ends, customers should hopefully see better GoGo service -- just not without a lot of kicking and screaming first. While we wait, we can just enjoy the irony of one of the least liked companies in one of the most despised industries giving lectures on captive market innovation and competition.

Filed Under: airplane internet, satellite, wifi in the sky
Companies: american airlines, gogo

FCC Approves AT&T's $69 Billion DirecTV Merger, Announces It Late Friday And Hopes Nobody Notices

from the lava-is-in-the-public-interest dept

Waiting until late Friday afternoon to minimize public and press backlash, the FCC has formally announced that it has voted to approve AT&T's $69 billion acquisition of DirecTV, creating the nation's biggest ever pay TV provider at 27 million subscribers strong. According to the FCC statement, the agency found that the deal, despite the fact it eliminates a direct pay TV competitor, somehow serves the public interest:

"The Commission’s decision is based on a careful, thorough review of the record, which includes extensive economic analysis and documentary data from the applicants, as well as comments from interested parties. Based on this review, the Commission has determined that granting the application, subject to certain conditions, is in the public interest."

It will be curious to see if the DirecTV employees trimmed by AT&T's garden shears as the telco eliminates "redundancies" will feel the same way. Or if the DirecTV customers who'll suddenly face higher TV prices thanks to less direct pay TV price competition feel their interests have been well looked after by this time next year. Only time will illuminate the magical public interest benefits of the deal, since they're not entirely apparent at the moment.

As we noted previously, the temporary conditions attached to the deal appear to be wimpy at best. One condition prevents AT&T from abusing its fixed-line usage caps anti-competitively, but the agency doesn't bother to note that AT&T doesn't have usage caps on the majority of its U-Verse broadband lines, and has no plans to implement them. AT&T's focus, and the current controversy as it pertains to AT&T's use of caps to trample net neutrality, is on wireless, which these conditions wouldn't apply to.

Another condition states that AT&T has to submit any new interconnection agreements to the FCC for review to ensure it's not behaving anti-competitively, but this was already effectively part of the FCC's new net neutrality protections. Thanks to the mere threat of neutrality rules, AT&T was already on its very best behavior in regard to interconnection. Granted AT&T is engaged in two different lawsuits to kill these rules, so at least there's something in place to police interconnection should the neutrality rules get defeated in court. But AT&T promising to avoid interconnection jackassery for a few years is hardly a groundbreaking commitment.

But it's this part of the FCC's statement I find the most misleading:

"Recognizing that the merger reduces AT&T-DIRECTV’s incentive to deploy FTTP service, the Commission adopts as a condition of this merger the expansion of FTTP service to 12.5 million customer locations. This condition also responds to the harm of the loss of a video competitor in areas where AT&T and DIRECTV had directly competed before the merger by providing a pathway for increased competition from services that rely on broadband Internet to deliver video."

One, what good is an expanded "pathway" to Internet video competition if said pathway wanders straight through a monopoly mine field on last mile broadband service? Two, as we noted previously, AT&T and the FCC are being incredibly misleading on this 12.5 million deployment total. A month before the DirecTV deal was even announced, AT&T promised to expand its fiber broadband service (mostly aimed at high-end developments) to "up to" parts of 100 cities. When pressed, AT&T in filings conceded this project, primarily aimed at countering Google Fiber's buzz, would likely bring service to around 11.7 million users. So in short, the lion's share of the 12.5 million total isn't new commitment, it's deployments that were already planned (and in some cases already finished) being dressed up as only having been made possible by the magic of a mega-merger.

So why did an FCC on a bit of a pro-consumer tear approve this deal? It's likely because the FCC knows in time AT&T's acquisition of a satellite TV provider will be made wholly irrelevant by a surge in Internet video competition and cord cutting. The FCC's been engaged in a fierce battle with the broadband industry over net neutrality, a new 25 Mbps definition for broadband, and municipal broadband, so approving this deal was one way to throw the broadband industry a few crumbs with the least amount of market damage. The FCC's likely just picking its battles after having just fought a protracted war.

That said, the short-term harm from effectively killing a pay TV competitor will be felt by TV subscribers and employees alike. And the fact the FCC was so eager to swallow and sell AT&T's miracle math suggests that the FCC hasn't entirely discarded old habits just yet.

Filed Under: competition, fcc, merger, satellite, spectrum, tv
Companies: at&t, directv

FCC Signs Off on AT&T DirecTV Merger, And Early Indications Are The Conditions Are Hot Garbage

from the AT&T's-magic-math dept

While Comcast's failed merger attempt with Time Warner Cable received a well-deserved media and public beating, AT&T's almost-as-bad $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV has been able to largely fly under the radar, despite the fact that only the latter eliminates a direct pay TV competitor. With less public pressure from consumer outrage, the FCC and DOJ appear poised to approve AT&T's deal, and the FCC is circulating an order approving the deal among the agency's Commissioners. Approval could occur as soon as this week.

In a statement issued to the FCC website, FCC boss Tom Wheeler states he's pushing for several conditions on the deal he claims will "protect consumers, expand high-speed broadband availability, and increase competition." One of them involves restricting AT&T from using its fixed-line usage caps for anti-competitive advantage:

"In addition, the conditions will build on the Open Internet Order already in effect, addressing two merger-specific issues. First, in order to prevent discrimination against online video competition, AT&T will not be permitted to exclude affiliated video services and content from data caps on its fixed broadband connections."

The problem? While AT&T's DSL users do face a 150 GB monthly usage cap (with $10 per 50 GB overage fees), AT&T's busy kicking these unwanted customers to the curb because they're too expensive to upgrade. On the other hand AT&T's U-Verse customers, the ones AT&T plans on keeping, don't face an enforced usage cap. As such, a condition preventing them from abusing this non-existent cap isn't much of a condition. Most of AT&T's controversial "zero rating" practices in regards to usage caps are happening on AT&T's wireless network, which the condition wouldn't apply to.

Wheeler's also promising that his conditions will force AT&T to deploy upgraded broadband services to more areas than ever before:

"If the conditions are approved by my colleagues, 12.5 million customer locations will have access to a competitive high-speed fiber connection. This additional build-out is about 10 times the size of AT&T’s current fiber-to-the-premise deployment, increases the entire nation’s residential fiber build by more than 40 percent, and more than triples the number of metropolitan areas AT&T has announced plans to serve.

The problem here is that AT&T's been manipulating its broadband deployment statistics for fifteen years or so to win regulatory favor. The company will take deployments already planned (or in some cases built), pretend these users are new deployments, then promise regulators it will engage in a broadband "expansion" if regulators only agree to "X" (deregulation, more subsidies, more tax breaks, merger approval, whatever). Nobody in DC has ever bothered to actually audit AT&T's endlessly shifting deployment projections, or even call them on the statistical slight of hand.

And AT&T appears to be doing that again here. With the FCC's help.

Back on April 21st, 2014 -- a month before the deal with DirecTV was even struck -- AT&T announced a shiny new PR campaign (designed to counter Google Fiber's buzz) proclaiming the company would be bringing fiber to "up to" 100 cities. These are cherry picked installs, mostly high-end developments, where install costs are already low because fiber's already in the ground. You might recall that AT&T then pouted and threatened to pull these limited upgrades if net neutrality rules were passed. When pressed by the FCC, AT&T backed down on the threat.

But in a highly-redacted June response to the FCC (pdf), AT&T states that the company is promising to deploy fiber broadband to a total 11.7 million homes (this includes the April 2014 plans) should the merger be approved, with only 2 million of this total being actual, new deployment. So only a fraction of this 12.5 million number Wheeler is using is "new" at all, and it's certainly nowhere near "10 times" the size of AT&T's current deployment. The tl:dr version is that AT&T's taking existing (and in some cases finished) deployments, pretending they're totally new deployments only made possible by the DirecTV merger, and the FCC's helping them.

The real irony is that AT&T's actually cutting fixed-line investment CAPEX so it can focus on more-profitable capped wireless, and in the process preparing to hang up on tens of millions of unwanted DSL users. This is going to leave cable with an even stronger monopoly than ever before across a huge swath of the country, and few people in the press, public or in government appear to have noticed or care. Instead, we get a mega merger bloated with AT&T's miracle math.

I think the majority FCC is ok with AT&T's merger because buying a satellite TV provider on the eve of the Internet TV revolution is basically business seppuku, ultimately made irrelevant by the rise of alternative options. But the elimination of a direct competitor still means higher rates in the short term, and there's an awful lot of actual fiber that $49 billion could help deploy. There's little to no hard consumer benefits here, and as usual AT&T lawyers are doing a bang up job manufacturing some out of very thin air (while filing two lawsuits against the FCC's net neutrality rules to ensure nobody can police their behavior after the merger conditions expire).

Note the FCC hasn't released the full details of the conditions, so hopefully there's more teeth here than Wheeler's original announcement suggests. But his willingness to buy into AT&T's magic, meandering math isn't a promising start.

Filed Under: broadband, conditions, fcc, satellite, tom wheeler, tv
Companies: at&t, directv

DailyDirt: Crowds In Spaaaace...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Exploring the vastness of space isn't cheap, but it's becoming more accessible as the cost of satellites comes down slowly and data from telescopes is shared widely and freely. Citizen scientists can help advance astronomy in a variety of ways, donating time and/or money to projects that need more help. NASA's budget isn't exactly huge (compared to other parts of the national budget), so space scientists need all the help they can get. Here are just a few links on the wisdom of the crowd contributing to space exploration.

• A crowdfunded group of space junkies has revived the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite, which launched in 1978 and was officially suspended in 1998. NASA has turned over control of this old satellite to the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, but the group doesn't have much time to play with the satellite unless it can figure out how to re-fire its engines. [url]
• NASA's Be a Martian project is asking citizen scientists to help map the surface of Mars. There's a lot of area to cover with a chance of finding something really, really interesting. [url]
• Citizen astronomers could help identify interesting Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) that the New Horizons spacecraft might investigate. The Ice Hunter project ended in early 2012, and out of the 143 KBO candidates identified, none were in range. (Another Ice Investigators project to look for more KBOs is underway, though.) [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: astronomy, citizen scientists, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, diy space, isee-3, kbo, kuiper belt objects, mars, new horizons, satellite, space exploration, spacecraft
Companies: nasa

Getting Bigger For Bigness' Sake: AT&T Announces Deal To Buy DirecTV, A Deal That Even Confuses Wall St.

from the well-we-gotta-buy-something dept

This has been rumored for a bit, but over the weekend AT&T officially announced plans to buy DirecTV for $50 billion. DirecTV is one of the companies perpetually being bought and sold (or rumored to be). The company has been involved in more aborted mergers than I can remember. Either way, while Wall Street folks often like just about any merger announcement (mergers and later spinoffs are great moneymakers for the banks), even it has been scratching its head at this particular deal. At best, it seems like a sort of reaction to Comcast-Time Warner Cable and an attempt to get bigger for the sake of bigness. Though, of course, it's getting bigger in a pretty saturated market (and one that is actually on the decline due to cord cutting). Perhaps it's an admission that AT&T's own TV service, Uverse, just hasn't done that well. Or maybe it's just an admission that AT&T is swimming in too much cash.

Either way, if both this and the Comcast/TWC merger go through, then we'll have an almost complete duopoly on pay TV. Congress wasted no time in announcing that hearings will have to be held about the potential merger, and, as with the Comcast deal, expect months of puffed up rhetoric and questionable op-ed pieces, as lobbyists work over time to make sure the deal happens. Of course, there is another way that the public can make their own statement on all of this: cut the cord and stop relying on terrible pay TV deals that really just aren't worth it any more.

Filed Under: acquisition, merger, pay tv, satellite
Companies: at&t, directv

NSA Spying Fallout Hits French Satellite Deal

from the guilt-by-association dept

Techdirt has already noted how the NSA's massive spying programs around the world are costing US companies money through lost business -- and are likely to cost them even more in the future. But it seems that the fallout is even wider, as this story from The Voice of Russia makes clear:

The sale of two intelligence satellites by France to the UAE [United Arab Emirates] for nearly $1bln could go bust after the satellites were found to contain US technology designed to intercept data transmitted to the ground station.

A top UAE defence source said that the satellites contain specific US-made components designed to intercept the satellites' communication with their accompanying ground station.

As a result, the UAE might do a deal with the Russians instead:

An unnamed UAE defence source said that it is not clear if the US equipment can be taken off the French satellites, so the incident has resulted in an increase of talks with Moscow, which, along with Beijing, has also been a frequent defence technology supplier to the Emirates.

So it seems likely that not only will US companies find it hard to sell their wares directly to nations that are worried about possible surveillance, but foreign manufacturers will also be reluctant to include certain types of US technology in their own products, since that might cost them contracts. The price being paid by US businesses for the NSA's "collect it all" approach continues to rise.

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Filed Under: france, nsa, privacy, satellite, surveillance, united arab emirates

DailyDirt: Biomimicry In Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Robot designs often steal from nature. Roboticists have created all kinds of insect-inspired bots and bots based on birds, lizards and mammals. It's easy to see how these robots fit into our world because animals with similar silhouettes are already everywhere. But it's not so intuitive that biomimicry should work in the low gravity environment of space. Without any alien life forms to cheat off, it looks like we're going to try to find out how some bio-inspired robots adapt to extraterrestrial locations.

• An unmanned mission to explore the moon could include the use of an ape-like robot that can walk/crawl on the lunar surface. It looks cool, but a robot with four complex limbs doesn't seem to be the easiest bot to maintain in space. Keep It Simple, Scientists! [url]
• Norway's SINTEF Research Institute is developing a snake-like robot to explore the surface of Mars. A snake bot could team up with a conventional rover design and help the rover if its wheels ever get stuck in the sandy Martian landscape. [url]
• SpiderFab is a satellite-building concept where structures are built in space like a spider weaving its web. This kind of satellite construction would allow for larger and more complex designs, and assembling parts in space using a spider-inspired robot could be demonstrated in the next 3-4 years (optimistically). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: biomimicry, mars, moon, robots, rover, satellite, sintef, snake bot, space, spiderfab, unmanned

DailyDirt: Get Your Own Satellite

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Private space technology is becoming ever more affordable. Not too long ago, only large governments were able to send stuff into space. Now, large companies can do it, and even some wealthy individuals can control their own satellite (or their own part of one). Here are just a few (more) interesting projects that suggest satellites will be ever more accessible to regular folks (and not just for satellite TV or internet access).

• George Clooney controls a satellite that has spied on Sudan since 2010. The Satellite Sentinel Project promotes human rights by keeping an eye on possible war crimes. [url]
• NASA couldn't continue operating its GALEX satellite due to budget constraints, so it's lending the aging satellite to Caltech to keep it running and observing ultraviolet wavelengths in our galaxy. This is the only satellite currently observing UV events, and this science mission is being privately funded to keep it going. [url]
• The European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO) mission aims to put a micro-satellite in low Earth orbit to provide students hands-on experience with an active space project. It will be launched in 2015-2016 and stay in orbit for at least 6 months. [url]
• The Arkyd project has succeeded in achieving its Kickstarter goal, making a crowdfunded satellite a reality. Planetary Resources is expected to deliver a functioning satellite sometime around August 2015. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: arkyd, caltech, esa, galex, george clooney, inexpensive space projects, micro-satellite, nasa, satellite, satellite sentinel project, science, space, sudan
Companies: esa, kickstarter, nasa, planetary resources

DailyDirt: Playing With Asteroids

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The idea of mining asteroids has been around for quite some time, but only recently has it been considered a somewhat practical (and possibly profitable) venture. It's possible that private space companies could make it to an asteroid before NASA gets to one, and it'll be interesting to see what happens if asteroid mining operations succeed in bringing back significant quantities of valuable metals. But we're not quite there yet. Here are just a few links on the baby steps we might need to take to start playing with asteroids.

• Astronomers have identified about a dozen easily-captured asteroids (or Easily Retrievable Objects -- EROs) that could be nudged into an Earth orbit with existing rocket technologies. We could bring about 1,500 tons of space rock right to our front door for mining operations... as long as we don't miscalculate and cause a nuclear winter by turning them into meteorites. [url]
• Not that long ago, a 10,000 ton meteoroid landed near the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,500 people and causing millions of dollars in damages. Researchers have back-tracked the path of this space rock to its origin as an Apollo-class asteroid -- one of many objects near our planet that could come crashing down on us. Maybe we should focus more on preventing huge meteorites? [url]
• The Keck Institute for Space Studies has studied the feasibility of capturing a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) to a high lunar orbit by 2025. They estimated the cost of such a mission would be around $2.6 billion. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: asteroid, astronomy, chelyabinsk, ero, meteorite, meteoroid, nea, orbit, rocket technology, satellite, space, space mining
Companies: nasa, planetary resources