Regulators Are Ignoring How Low Orbit Satellite Broadband Is Trashing The Night Sky

from the blinded-by-science dept

As previously noted, Space X, Amazon, and others are pushing harder than ever into the low-orbit satellite broadband game. The industry, pockmarked by a long road of failures, involves firing thousands of smaller, cheaper, lower orbit satellite constellations into space to help supplement existing broadband services. The lower orbit means that LO satellite service will offer lower-latency broadband than traditional satellite offerings, which for 15 years or so have been widely maligned as expensive, slow, "laggy," with annoying monthly caps.

And while these services should absolutely help bring some additional options to rural Americans, nautical ventures, and those out of range of traditional service, folks shouldn't get their hopes up in terms of broader disruption of the uncompetitive U.S. telecom market. The physics involved in satellite transmission means there will always be limited capacity and odd throttling and network management restrictions, meaning it won't really make much headway in highly monopolized major metro areas. In short, the tech is absolutely a positive advancement, but it's not going to be the game changer many think.

And there's another growing problem with low orbit satellite technology. As we launch thousands of these micro-satellite constellations into space, the LO satellites are annoying professional and amateur astronomers, who say they're interfering with space observation and important scientific data collection (especially at wide-field observatories). During the recent monitoring of the NEOWISE comet, for example, photographer Daniel Lopez showed what Starlink "photobombing" looks like in practice for those trying to track these sort of events in the night sky:

Not great. And it's going to get notably worse. Amazon's Project Kuiper constellation, for example, will eventually consist of 3,236 satellites, more than the 2,600 satellites currently in orbit. Space X's Starlink project, in contrast, could ultimately consist of as many as 12,000 satellites all told. In some instances this is an even worse problem for slightly higher altitude LO satellites. And keep in mind this is just the testing phase... we haven't even gotten close to broader commercial deployment yet.

While Space X says it's taking steps to minimize the glare and "photo bombing" capabilities of these satellites (such as anti-reflective coating on the most problematic parts of the satellites), regulators at the FCC and elsewhere appear to be asleep at the wheel in terms of the broader impact on science and astronomy:

"We don’t yet have any kind of industrywide guidelines,” said Michele Bannister, a planetary astronomer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “We don’t have an industry body that’s producing good corporate citizenship on the part of all of these enthusiastic companies that want to launch, and we don’t have any regulatory setup in place that’s providing clear guidelines back to the industry.”

She added, “To me, honestly, it feels like putting a bunch of planes up and then not having air traffic control."

No guidelines. Not just patchy or undeveloped guidelines. But none.

It won't get mentioned by the Times, but part of the problem are regulators who base their decisions on ideology and not data. In telecom, folks on the "deregulate everything and free market magic springs forth from the sidewalk" side of the policy aisle have long tried to paint emerging broadband alternatives as near-mystical panaceas to justify deregulation. As in, "we don't need regulation of telecom monopolies or consumer protection because this new technology X will create competition and fix everything." It never works because the U.S. telecom industry is painfully monopolized and broken, yet that never seems to matter.

This performative policy happened most notably years back with broadband over powerline (BPL), which former FCC boss turned cable's top lobbyist Mike Powell hyped as the "great broadband hope." Powell routinely hyped the tech to justify his massive deregulation of telecom in the aughts, but willfully ignored the fact the technology was an interference prone mess causing massive problems for radio transmissions nearby. BPL failed, and you only need to look at U.S. broadband prices, rankings, or Comcast's customer support to see how this worked out for everybody.

Low orbit satellite is far more useful and solid than BPL ever was, but I'm expecting to see it used in much the same way by the Pai FCC. As in: Pai's crew will quickly rubber stamp Amazon and Space X's ambition, hopeful that the added competition will help them retroactively justify their complete demolition of U.S. telecom consumer protections at the telecom lobby's behest. As in, we didn't need pesky oversight of monopolies because free market competition saved the day. But by Musk's own admission Starlink won't truly disrupt U.S. telecom because it can't serve dense urban or suburban markets, meaning companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast won't be meaningfully disrupted, and reality and aspirational policy once again won't line up.

When your top priorities are the maximizing of corporate revenues or the retroactive justification of bad policy based exclusively on ideology, the end result usually tends to lack... nuance. And in this case, this regulatory myopia could in many ways have unintended harm that goes well beyond the telecom sector and into the night sky itself.

Filed Under: broadband, competition, fcc, leo, low earth orbit, night sky, pollution, satellite broadband, satellites

Space X's Starlink Won't Be The Broadband Disruption Play Many People Think

from the don't-get-your-hopes-up dept

After initially obtaining an FCC license for up to 1 million Starlink satellite broadband customers in the United States, Space X last week quadrupled that estimate, and is now hopeful that 5 million Americans will sign up for service. To be clear: Space X's service won't be taking on traditional broadband providers in major metro areas. Instead, the company will be using thousands of low orbit satellites (with lower latency than traditional satellite broadband) to deliver marginally decent service to under-served rural Americans, assuming it winds up being profitable longer term.

In a country where an estimated 42 million can't get any broadband at all (during a raging pandemic, no less), any little improvement helps. By and large, most major outlets have framed Starlink as a massive disruption of the broadband industry:

"Starlink is the company’s ambitious plan to build an interconnected network of about 12,000 small satellites, to beam high-speed internet anywhere in the world. To date, SpaceX has launched more than 500 Starlink satellites. In addition to getting the satellites in orbit, SpaceX will need to build a vast system of ground stations and affordable user terminals if it is going to connect consumers directly to its network."

But those thinking that Starlink is going to truly disrupt the broadband industry at large probably shouldn't be holding their breath. Even the industry-cozy FCC has expressed skepticism about Musk's latency claims. And Musk himself has made it clear the service won't be a big threat to incumbent broadband providers because there just won't be enough capacity available to offer the service in major metro areas. No limit of marketing hype will be able to defeat the law of physics:

"The challenge for anything that is space-based is that the size of the cell is gigantic... it's not good for high-density situations," Musk said. "We'll have some small number of customers in LA. But we can't do a lot of customers in LA because the bandwidth per cell is simply not high enough."

Again, that's not to say Starlink won't be a positive advancement for rural broadband users, but it's mostly a play aimed at a niche market American companies have, time and time again, deemed to costly to serve after some initial flirtation. In time, Space X may as well. Given there have been so many failed attempts to disrupt the heavily monopolized residential US telecom sector (especially in low orbit satellite), it makes sense to wait for a fully commercial launch -- and to see what pricing and weird usage restrictions are applied -- before getting too excited about Starlink's potential for meaningful innovation.

It's also worth noting that existing telecom monopolists just love using emerging technologies as justification for regulatory apathy (read: we don't need oversight because the sector is just so darn competitive). As we saw with failed broadband over powerline (BPL) technology or wireless tech like WiMax, that usually involves radically over-hyping emerging competitors as mystical panaceas in a bid to suggest that reasonable adult oversight of the sector is no longer needed. That's certainly the tactic being used for 5G (another technology that won't be as disruptive as claimed for a laundry list of reasons), and I'd wager that Space X and Amazon's low orbit satellite experiments will soon be abused in the policy arena by AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon in much the same way -- even if the actual impact on incumbent businesses will likely be negligible.

Filed Under: broadband, competition, elon musk, leo, low earth orbit, satellites, starlink
Companies: spacex, starlink

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

DailyDirt: Making A Trip To Mars

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been decades since a human being has traveled beyond low earth orbit. Last year, NASA tested its human-rated Space Launch System to an altitude of 3,600 miles, but getting people to a "human accessible surface" that isn't part of the earth is going to take some time. China could have a taikonaut on the moon before 2030. NASA can say it's "been there, done that" -- but when will it be able to top a manned lunar landing?

• NASA is working on its (potentially Mars-bound) spacecraft, Orion -- to get astronauts deeper into space. At the same time, NASA is also developing its Space Launch System (SLS) that will get Orion beyond low earth orbit, and if everything goes as planned the first manned crews will be taking off in 2023. [url]
• It might make sense to create a moon base as a pit stop before launching manned missions to more distant locations like Mars. If we can mine the moon for resources, that could reduce the expense of sending everything from the earth. However, it'll take a bit longer to figure out how to process and manufacture anything on the moon, especially if it's going to be done autonomously somehow. [url]
• NASA's 2013 class of astronauts are being trained to possibly go to Mars. There are only 8 of these astronauts (and 4 of them are women), and presumably, their training on vomit comets will be pretty intense. [url]
• Making a trip to Mars in the near future is going to be expensive and probably controversial. Arguably, billions of dollars could be better spent to solve problems on Earth, and Mars is going to be around for quite some time. Still, it doesn't hurt to make some goals and try to scope out potential landing sites on the red planet, does it? [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: astronauts, human accessible surface, leo, lunar base, manned missions, mars, moon, orion, sls, space, space exploration, space race, taikonauts, vomit comet
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Space Tourism vs Working In Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Even though there are less than a handful of ways for people to get into space right now, there may be a few more options in the near future to get close to space or into low earth orbit. If you have the resources, you could just book a seat on a Soyuz for $20-70 million. But for a bit less, you can book a trip on various vehicles without a decades-long track record. Or... you could be paid to be an astronaut if you have the skills, but the odds of getting selected are pretty slim.

• Virgin Galactic has built a replacement for its SpaceShipTwo vehicle that was destroyed in a fatal accident. The new VSS Unity incorporates a few more automated safety features and uses a different rocket fuel -- and may someday take dozens (hundreds?) of passengers to the edge of space as tourists. [url]
• Over 18,000 people have applied to become an astronaut for NASA -- in order to be named one of the 8 to 14 new astronauts in 2017. It's never been easy to be selected as an astronaut, but this is apparently the highest number of applications that NASA has received (even when NASA still operated a vehicle that could take people into space). [url]
• World View Enterprises is another step closer to building its own "spaceport" in Arizona. Spaceport Tuscon would launch World View's high altitude balloons to about 100,000 feet up in pressurized cabins. FYI, World View owns the tech that helped ex-Google VP Alan Eustace make a record-breaking skydive from an altitude of 135,908 feet. [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: astronauts, leo, manned missions, soyuz, space, space exploration, space tourism, spaceport, spaceport tuscon, spaceshiptwo, vss unity
Companies: nasa, virgin galactic, world view enterprises

DailyDirt: High-Flying Balloons FTW!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Before the Wright brothers and planes, people had actually flown in hot air balloons as early as 1783. Those early balloons didn't travel that far -- just a few miles or a couple dozen miles if the balloons were filled with hydrogen. Blimps (aka airships) were somewhat common in the early 1900s, but obviously that mode of transportation didn't really stick around after the spectacular demise of the Hindenburg. Perhaps we're due for a comeback for more advanced balloons now?

• World View's commercial balloon rides at high altitude are a relatively cheap way to get close to the edge of space. They've successfully tested the first parafoil at stratospheric heights, and this near-space vehicle will also carry scientific equipment for unmanned missions to the upper atmosphere. [url]
• NASA is developing scientific "super-pressure" helium balloons that can last for months in the upper atmosphere. It's not easy to keep a balloon aloft for that long, but NASA is still working on it to float telescopes above the clouds without an expensive rocket launch. [url]
• The BLAST telescope was designed to hang from a high altitude balloon, and it's successfully gathered data on star formation. Unfortunately, the telescope was badly damaged in one of its landings, but it was repaired to fly again in 2010 for 9 days. [url]
• Google's (or Alphabet's) Project Loon has balloons that can fly for well over 100 days -- and some have even lasted over 200 days. These balloons need to survive high altitudes and cold temperatures, and hopefully they'll start to deliver reliable wireless broadband internet soon. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, check out this holiday gift guide for some awesome deals at the Techdirt deals store.

Filed Under: airships, balloons, blast telescope, leo, parafoil, project loon
Companies: google, nasa, world view

DailyDirt: Listening To Muzak On A Long Space Elevator Ride...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Reliable space travel is slightly elusive. Sure, we have a few rocket systems that can take people up to low Earth orbit, but there's always the chance that those rockets will fail and explode in the sky. On top of that, re-usable rockets haven't quite lived up to their promised cost effectiveness, though some progress is being made on that front. A space elevator could provide a nice alternative, obviating the need for explosive chemical thrust to get to orbital altitudes. But where would we put it, if it's even possible to build one? (Maybe on Mars first....)

• The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) believes it will be possible to get a kilogram of payload into geosynchronous orbit for just a few hundred bucks... someday. There's still no known material that's strong enough to do the job necessary to build a space elevator, but there are a few promising candidates. [url]
• Graphene might be a suitable material for a space elevator tether, but no one has figured out how to make miles of it yet. Researchers are working on making large-scale amounts of graphene, but it's still in experimental stages. [url]
• There are more than a handful of significant challenges that need to be solved before anyone gets a working space elevator. The most obvious problem is creating the tether material, but there are also vibration issues on the tether, the problem of keeping the tether relatively stationary, possible collisions with all kinds of space junk, the environmental risk of an enormous tether to space, and all the unknown maintenance costs. [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: geosynchronous orbit, graphene, international space elevator consortium, isec, leo, space, space elevator, space exploration, space junk, space travel

DailyDirt: Space, The Final Next Frontier...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The space right above our planet's atmosphere is cluttered with human technology and space junk, and it's getting more crowded up there all the time. Sure, the vastness of the universe is practically infinite, but there are only a few Lagrange points, and artificial satellites have started to run into traffic problems -- including intentional satellite destruction that might not be quite innocuous. Wars over outer space might become a real thing in the not so distant future, if it's not happening already.

• About 1,300 active satellites are orbiting right now, and there doesn't seem to be much agreement on a new code of conduct for spacefaring nations. Anti-satellite weaponry has been around for about as long as artificial satellites have existed, and billions will be spent over the next few years to maintain and further develop military space programs. [url]
• The US is creating a centralized operations center for monitoring space threats such as spy and military satellites. This project will also aggregate satellite data to try to better monitor situations on the ground (or on the water) as well. Thankfully, no one is training astronauts in zero-G hand-to-hand combat.... [url]
• Is it possible to launch a satellite as an individual? Not just some weather balloon junk, but a cubesat or something that will actually orbit a few times... Yes, but it'll cost you over $100,000 to hitch a ride on a Soyuz mission. Korean artist, Hojun Song, successfully launched a 1-kg cubesat called OSSI-1 -- so if you have the resources, it can be done. And presumably, your satellite will have to be completely harmless, so you don't start an international incident. [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: cubesats, hojun song, lagrange point, leo, ossi-1, satellites, soyuz, space, space junk, war, weapons

DailyDirt: Plenty Of Spaceships... Sorta

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The number of ways to get a person into space is pretty limited at the moment. Only Russia and China have operational launch systems that can escape the Earth's gravity (with people as passengers). There are a bunch more spaceships in development, though, so if you really want to get into space without a Soyuz or Shenzhou, you'll have to be patient. There have been a few recent accidents, but it looks like engineers have figured out some of the problems.

• Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash was evidently caused by human error. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury prematurely unlocked the ship's braking system which deployed and led to a catastrophic structural failure. This spacecraft was designed with minimal automated systems to reduce complexity, but Virgin Galactic has added a safety feature to prevent this from happening again -- and the design philosophy that favors manual systems may need additional tweaking. [url]
• EmDrive is a theoretically impossible propulsion system that produces "anomalous thrust" which has been observed by at least two independent labs now. It's still not clear what is going on, but if this technology actually works, it would completely change the timetables for space travel. An EmDrive-powered vehicle could reach Pluto in 18 months -- instead of the years that it took New Horizons to do so. [url]
• If you want to just see the edge of space, there are more and more helium-balloon-like ways to get there. Stratospheric ballooning for space tourism might be a bit safer than a rocket to LEO, and maybe a little bit cheaper. (Who's counting pennies c-notes when we're talking about traveling to the edge of space?) [url]
• Blue Origin has tested its New Shepard suborbital system successfully, but it didn't recover its reusable booster stage. Ultimately, the New Shepard spaceship will hold 3 passengers and reach an altitude of 62 miles, but further unmanned testing will be done before passengers are allowed onboard. [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: emdrive, leo, new shepard, propulsion, shenzhou, soyuz, space tourism, spacecraft, spaceships, spaceshiptwo, stratospheric ballooning
Companies: blue origin, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: DIY Space Exploration

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The cost of getting an object into space is getting cheaper with time, so it's not too surprising that amateurs are starting to mess around with small satellites and vehicles that reach the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. Amateurs haven't achieved low Earth orbit without the help of actual aerospace companies, but citizen scientists could be getting closer to doing real space science on shoestring budgets. Here are just a few space exploration projects that didn't cost billions of taxpayer dollars.

• There are more than a handful of crowdfunded projects aiming to shoot stuff (including humans) into space. Copenhagen Suborbitals has an impressive following, but there are other amateur rocket scientists putting nano-satellites into low earth orbit and building novel thruster systems and space suits. The ability to do experiments in space has never been as accessible as it is today. [url]
• The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) project is launching a 3D printed rocket at an altitude of over 65,000 feet from a helium balloon. It's a bit more complicated than most weather balloon projects, but it would need more sophisticated tech to get to the edge of space and beyond. [url]
• NASA is considering proposals to let some cubesats hitch a ride to Europa to complement its Clipper mission to Jupiter's icy moon. Ten universities are among the finalists to get a $25,000 grant to develop their cubesat experiments. [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: crowdfunding, cubesats, diy space, europa, inexpensive space projects, leo, lohan, low orbit helium assisted navigator, satellites, space, space exploration
Companies: copenhagen suborbitals, nasa