Companies flood Earth's orbit with satellites
In the past five years, the number of operational satellites has jumped 40 percent, and nearly 1,400 now orbit the Earth.
And fiber has taken over for such needs
Quote from: Jim on 07/07/2016 03:03 pmAnd fiber has taken over for such needsNot even slightly real. I have coax to my house. In Northern Virginia. That's copper. I just was in range of the coax in the last year. Before it was twisted pair.A constellation of satellites fixes the last mile problem everywhere, not just in the non-fibered parts of the US.The fact such a large market exists if costs are low enough suggests elasticity.
Rural America also has near-zero broadband penetration.
Iridium Announces Second-Quarter 2016 Results; Reports Record Net Subscriber Additions
The Company ended the quarter with 823,000 total billable subscribers, which compares to 766,000 for the year-ago period and is up from 788,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. Total billable subscribers grew 7% year-over-year, driven by growth in government customers and machine-to-machine (“M2M”).“We delivered a best ever performance in subscriber growth driven by our M2M and government businesses, which illustrates the unique appeal of our services and positions us well for long-term growth,” said Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium.Commenting on Iridium NEXT, Desch said, “We look forward to commencing the launch campaign for Iridium NEXT. This major upgrade to our global constellation will build upon our leading position in satellite communications by adding high-speed broadband through Iridium CertusSM as well as important new hosted payload services, and be a platform for continued growth and innovation well into the future.”
All props for the notes below go to the original poster (AstroCatCommander) who posted this on reddit. Reposting: ----------------Conference Keynote https://smallsat.org/technical-program/keynoteMs. Gwynne Shotwell - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwynneshotwellPresident, COO, SpaceXExpect next decade to be > 3600 small satellites (<500kg)Expecting this year to be > $2.5B in financing for small satellite projectsNext decade, ~$22B (16.7B manufacturing, 5.3B launches, 11B+ expected as business cases are proven)Working closely with Spaceflight for upcoming rideshares
Shotwell looks forward toward growth in small sat market.Next decade:$16.7B manufacturing, $5.3B launches, and$11B+ operating revenue (I assume)Quote from: Dante80 on 08/09/2016 07:15 pmAll props for the notes below go to the original poster (AstroCatCommander) who posted this on reddit. Reposting: ----------------Conference Keynote https://smallsat.org/technical-program/keynoteMs. Gwynne Shotwell - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwynneshotwellPresident, COO, SpaceXExpect next decade to be > 3600 small satellites (<500kg)Expecting this year to be > $2.5B in financing for small satellite projectsNext decade, ~$22B (16.7B manufacturing, 5.3B launches, 11B+ expected as business cases are proven)Working closely with Spaceflight for upcoming rideshares
A Boeing study, cited in [8], indicates that a 50% growth in spacecraft mass could lead to a factor 3 reduction in spacecraft cost. If over-capable spacecraft are acceptable then they can be “off-the-rack”, like cubesats, rather than bespoke, and can reap the cost advantages of batch production.
Quote from: Blackjax on 07/09/2016 01:53 pmI think this is an important point to examine. Most satellites were designed around the notion that launches were expensive and infrequent, Launches are infrequent and expensive. With no down mass you can't build, launch, study the results and tweak it a bit, then re launch. Every payload is from scratch and can't be tweaked.
I think this is an important point to examine. Most satellites were designed around the notion that launches were expensive and infrequent,