Why did they not choose SpaceX to launch any of their satellites?
OneWeb/Airbus names MDA (antennas, Canada), Sodern (star trackers, France) & Teledyne Defence (repeaters, UK) as contractors for 900 sats.
Sodern, to produce 1,800 OneWeb star trackers (2 per sat), says new model is 1/10th mass/volume of predecessor, 1/50-1/100 cost, 5 yr life.
The OneWeb System will consist of approximately 720 satellites, plus in-orbit spares, with the capability to increase the number of satellites. The satellites will operate in LEO at an altitude of approximately 1200 km, using 18 orbital planes, each consisting initially of up to 40 satellites, with an 87.9 degree inclination of the orbital plane.
At 1200 km altitude, there should be lots of room to vary the altitudes of satellites in different orbital planes so that the orbits don't intersect.For example, you could have plane 1 at 1200 km altitude over the pole, plane 2 is at 1205 km altitude... ect until plane 18 at 1290 km altitude.Since orbital period is proportional to the semi major axis, you can ensure that all orbits have the same period by having apoapsis and periapsis over the poles and flipping the order of the altitudes at the north and south poles, so that all orbits have the same major axis.
Quote from: Nilof on 07/05/2016 04:59 pmAt 1200 km altitude, there should be lots of room to vary the altitudes of satellites in different orbital planes so that the orbits don't intersect.For example, you could have plane 1 at 1200 km altitude over the pole, plane 2 is at 1205 km altitude... ect until plane 18 at 1290 km altitude.Since orbital period is proportional to the semi major axis, you can ensure that all orbits have the same period by having apoapsis and periapsis over the poles and flipping the order of the altitudes at the north and south poles, so that all orbits have the same major axis.Kilometers of clearance maybe safe for normal operation, but if one collision happens, the debris cloud could flood into orbits of other satellites and cause avalanche collision of thousands satellites.
I am curious how this is currently handled by Iridium, since that is the most similar existing constellation and should have the same problem, just on a smaller scale.
A single frame from the Space Traffic Management video, not including the 2000 satellites One Web might be adding:
#OneWeb's Wyler: After 1st launch in March 2018, we test for 5 months, then start launches on @Arianespace Soyuz rockets every 21 days.
OneWeb's Wyler: First 10 sats in 2018, service in 2019, global coverage by 2021.