Internet Satellites May Be Elon Musk's Next Venture

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Exploding rockets and the potential self-realization of AI isn't stopping Elon Musk from exploring new areas. The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk is talking to satellite industry execs about a venture to launch 700 communications satellites.

In talks with industry executives, Messrs. Musk and Wyler have discussed launching around 700 satellites, each weighing less than 250 pounds, the people said. That is about half the size of the smallest communications satellites now in commercial use. The satellite constellation would be 10 times the size of the largest current fleet, managed by Iridium Communications Inc.
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As long as they don't have ultra tiny data caps that mimic those of smart phones (which Hughesnet currently does), I think this could be a useful thing. Even with long ping times, lets be honest anyway you slice it you're not playing multiplayer online games with satellite internet. But if they still have the same data caps... meh, then I couldn't care any less about some third world nation finally being able to connect to the internet, and it's not just me being heartless, it's I'd rather see the rural areas of the US get decent internet. As it stands you might as well use a smart phone and tether from it.
 
As an amateur astronomer, no. Just, no.
We have enough space trash up there. What is this going to accomplish that earth based equipment cannot? Personally, I don't think rural internet is important enough to ruin our skies. If it is so important, start rolling out fiber.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Even with long ping times, lets be honest anyway you slice it you're not playing multiplayer online games with satellite internet.
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That's with satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

The reason for 700 satellites is so you can put them in a much lower orbit, and avoid the horrible lag of geosynchronous satellites.
 
BladeVenom said:
That's with satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

The reason for 700 satellites is so you can put them in a much lower orbit, and avoid the horrible lag of geosynchronous satellites.
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You will still have latency issues. That's inherit nature of sat communication. Granted they will be lessened (from 1050 ms to around say 300-400 ms) but it will still render MP play by and large not playable. You just can't beat direct connection.

It should however be FAR cheaper to offer service. Which is where the big plus comes in and bandwidth shouldn't be so incredibly tied up. So it'll still be worthwhile.
 
BladeVenom said:
That's with satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

The reason for 700 satellites is so you can put them in a much lower orbit, and avoid the horrible lag of geosynchronous satellites.
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Oh? I thought the reason for 700 satellites was because one satellite that covers most of North America doesn't have the backend bandwidth to cover every rural person out there. But I guess that makes sense, geosync orbit is some prime real estate.
 
This from the same guy too "busy" to build his hyper loop.
 
it too can go bankrupt just like iridium
 
Elon Musk is beginning to sound/look like someone who has too much money to spend and moves on to the next project once they become disinterested in the project they are already doing.
 
Godmachine said:
You will still have latency issues. That's inherit nature of sat communication. Granted they will be lessened (from 1050 ms to around say 300-400 ms) but it will still render MP play by and large not playable. You just can't beat direct connection.
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When you go from 22,000+ miles above the earth, to less than a 1000, you cut the latency far more than that.

"The planned COMMStellation, scheduled for launch in 2015, will orbit the earth at 1,000 km with a latency of approximately 7 ms." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satell...encies.2C_but_lower_speeds.2C_of_lower_orbits
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
Bored Jerkoff with too much $$ does things, film at 11.
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Does things?

How much progress has he made building his "hyperloop"? That is right..none.

Try, bored jerkoff with too much money talks about doing things...gets bored after imagining them and goes to daydream with his mouth open about something else.
 
It's probably just like his hyperloop thing where Elmo is announcing something absurd to get people to notice him again before he announces an actual, far less interesting product which will then get more attention than it otherwise would have. Elmo's world is so scammy.
 
Skripka said:
Does things?

How much progress has he made building his "hyperloop"? That is right..none.

Try, bored jerkoff with too much money talks about doing things...gets bored after imagining them and goes to daydream with his mouth open about something else.
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Elon Musk: Oh I'm sorry, I can hardly hear you over the sound of the rockets from my space company, and let me jump into one of my silent electric cars that I'm also building to get away so I can hear what you're saying ;)
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
It's probably just like his hyperloop thing where Elmo is announcing something absurd to get people to notice him again before he announces an actual, far less interesting product which will then get more attention than it otherwise would have. Elmo's world is so scammy.
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I don't think it's a scam. He just likes to hear himself talk, particularly in the press.

You've never had a friend that just HAD to tell you every new idea that popped into their head?
This is the same thing, only since he's a billionaire, reporters get to listen to him as well as his friends.
 
BladeVenom said:
When you go from 22,000+ miles above the earth, to less than a 1000, you cut the latency far more than that.

"The planned COMMStellation, scheduled for launch in 2015, will orbit the earth at 1,000 km with a latency of approximately 7 ms." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satell...encies.2C_but_lower_speeds.2C_of_lower_orbits
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You have to account for processing on the ground. And you have to account for certain conditions that only effect sats as well. So while it'll speed up direct communication with the sat's backbone network that connects to fiber it will still have wildly varying latency depending on how many sats are visible and how clear your sky is so user to user variations will be a significant factor.

Ask someone who lives out in the boonies how their connection is even with minor cloud cover. Check the DSLreports subforums for sat providers and you'll see complaints about service drop outs every day and especially under adverse weather.

I'm not saying its a not a great step forward but sat communication will always have pitfalls for anyone with lower latency needs.
 
Kueller said:
I don't think it's a scam. He just likes to hear himself talk, particularly in the press.

You've never had a friend that just HAD to tell you every new idea that popped into their head?
This is the same thing, only since he's a billionaire, reporters get to listen to him as well as his friends.
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That's a really good point. I didn't even think about it that way, but yeah, there are people out there like that. For instance, I know of at least one person who recently purchased a Surface Pro 3 and is using any excuse possible to tell others about his experiences with it so far. That's more of a buyer's remorse avoidance thing, I think, but it's vaguely similar.
 
Skripka said:
Does things?

How much progress has he made building his "hyperloop"? That is right..none.

Try, bored jerkoff with too much money talks about doing things...gets bored after imagining them and goes to daydream with his mouth open about something else.
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He is not in the business of creating hyperloops. With his company SpaceX, it makes much more sense to do something related (communications satellites), rather than something he has no experience doing.

Also, he is not bored with doing things. His goal with SpaceX was to create heavy launch vehicles that would be capable of, say, Mars missions. That goal is essentially here. It makes sense that he is trying to expand.
 
Godmachine said:
You will still have latency issues. That's inherit nature of sat communication. Granted they will be lessened (from 1050 ms to around say 300-400 ms) but it will still render MP play by and large not playable.
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For most of the last 10 years, all of the "Oceanic" World of Warcraft servers (meant for Australian, New Zealand, etc players) were hosted in the west coast of the US. Latency of 300-400 was normal for those connecting over the ocean, and for most that was not a problem. They only just now, 10 years after the game came out, put local servers down there.
 
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