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Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 26

Oct 17, 2023

SpaceX details Starlink-for-phones plan, launching in 2024

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, satellites

Starlink’s website update is revealing a bit more about its plans for a satellite-delivered cell phone service. The new page for “Starlink Direct to Cell” promises “ubiquitous coverage” from “cellphone towers in space” that will work over bog-standard LTE. The current timeline claims there will be text service starting in 2024, voice and data in 2025, and “IoT” service in 2025.

Today satellite phone connectivity still requires giant, purpose-built hardware, like the old-school Iridium network phones. If you’re only looking for emergency texting, you can also make do with Apple’s introduction of the barely there connectivity paradigm, requiring being inside a connectivity window, holding up a phone, and following a signal-targeting app. Starlink wants to bring full-blown space connectivity to normal smartphone hardware.

Oct 16, 2023

Starlink Direct to Cell Services Start in 2024

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, robotics/AI, satellites

Starlink satellites will soon be offering Direct to Cell capabilities to enable texting, calling, and browsing everywhere on Earth. SpaceX will start satellite-based text messaging in 2024 and expand to voice and text support in 2025. They will offer cellular connectivity to IoT devices in 2025. The service will work with existing LTE phones without the need for any hardware, firmware changes, or special apps.

Direct to Cell will also connect IoT devices with common LTE standards. SpaceX plans to equip its future Starlink satellites with an advanced eNodeB modem. This innovation will essentially transform a Starlink satellite into a cellphone tower in space.

This will be enabled by tens of thousands of satellites and eventually millions of satellites will replace most of the 5 million cell towers on Earth. It will means everyone and everything can be connected. All people, robots, and self driving vehicles will be connected.

Oct 14, 2023

China Makes Advances In Space Lasers, Microwave Weapons

Posted by in categories: military, nuclear energy, satellites

Chinese scientists claim they’ve had unexpected success in developing a high-powered microwave (HPM) weapon, according to The Diplomat. The magazine notes that in January, Huang Wenhua, deputy director of China’s Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, was awarded for his research on directed energy, which HPM weapons use.

HPM systems are able to destroy electronic equipment, and in an age when most combat systems—from tanks to planes, radios to satellites—rely on electronics, the weapons could change the way wars are fought. Warships will be fitted with HPM weapons to intercept incoming missiles.

The HPM project, alongside other projects involving lasers and electromagnetic pulses, is part of the Chinese regime’s “Assassin’s Mace” (or “Trump Card”) program designed to defeat a technologically superior opponent by disabling or destroying the technology that makes the opponent superior.

Oct 14, 2023

SpaceX says Starlink-for-phones will be available in 2024

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, satellites

The service was supposed to be launched in beta this year but has been pushed back after Starship has failed to reach orbit.

SpaceX’s satellite-powered mobile telephony service could be available in 2024, according to recent changes in the service provider’s webpage. Direct to Cell will allow text, voice, and data services from Starlink’s V2 satellites.

Launched more than 30 years ago, satellite-based telephone services are still as challenging to use as they were back then. With the advent of satellite-based internet services, thanks to Starlink, interest in telephony has increased again. Apple introduced it in their latest iPhone but limited it to emergency purposes and nothing beyond basic texts.

Oct 12, 2023

Unmanned and unbothered: Autonomous intelligent oceanic exploration is upon us

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, satellites

The ocean has always been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to understanding and traversing its seemingly limitless blue waters. Past innovations such as deep-sea submersibles and ocean-observing satellites have helped illuminate some wonders of the ocean though many questions still remain.

These questions are closer to being answered thanks to the development of the Intelligent Swift Ocean Observing System (ISOOS). Using this system, targeted regions of the ocean can be mapped in a three-dimensional method allowing for more data to be gathered in a safer, quicker and more efficient method than existing technologies can achieve.

Researchers published their results in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research.

Oct 12, 2023

SpaceX Starlink lands Maersk in new deal for Ocean fleet

Posted by in categories: business, internet, satellites

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has landed a new client in Maersk, as the two companies came to terms on a deal that would provide the company’s Ocean fleet with internet access.

Maersk announced this morning that more than 330 own-operated container vessels will now have Starlink installed, enabling the fleet to access high-speed internet with speeds at over 200 Mbps.

The logistics company said the deal with SpaceX’s Starlink service “is a leap forward in terms of internet speed and latency, which will bring significant benefits in terms of both crew welfare and business impact.”

Oct 12, 2023

Starlink to Be Available on Most Aircraft Soon, Says Elon Musk

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, satellites

SpaceX’s Starlink will be available on most aircraft soon, said Elon Musk. The technology will be available for use by any operator if it is ordered.

Some operators provide an internet connection during airplane flights. However, if you try to use it, you will most likely encounter a problem. The problem with most in-flight internet offerings is speed and connectivity. Airplanes connected to the antenna receive signals from communications towers on the ground as they fly overhead. This limits the availability of internet: it becomes unstable, difficult to connect to, and the actual speed reaches no more than about 10 Mbps. That is why satellite internet can offer a number of benefits, and SpaceX’s Starlink will soon do just that.

Currently, Starlink has a constellation of about 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and plans to increase this to 42,000 in the future. This is significantly more than all other companies combined. For example, Viasat, which provides in-flight internet service to JetBlue, United Airlines, and American Airlines, operates a fleet of four satellites, according to The Street.

Oct 9, 2023

SpaceX to launch 22 Starlink satellites on Oct. 9

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

SpaceX is set to launch 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Monday night (Oct. 9).

The Starlink spacecraft are scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday at 8:42 p.m. EDT (0042 GMT on Oct. 10). Four backup opportunities are available as well, from 9:32 p.m. EDT until 12:10 a.m. EDT (0132 to 410 GMT on Oct. 10).

Oct 5, 2023

Why the first-ever space junk fine is such a big deal

Posted by in category: satellites

A fine handed to the US TV firm Dish by the FCC could help kick-start the market for solutions to space debris.

We’ve just taken a major step toward cleaning up space junk. On Monday, October 2, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US issued its first fine for space debris, ordering the US TV provider Dish to pay $150,000 for failing to move one of its satellites into a safe orbit.

“It is definitely a very big symbolic moment for debris mitigation,” says Michelle Hanlon, a space lawyer at the University of Mississippi. “It’s a great step in the right direction.”

Oct 5, 2023

Amazon’s Project Kuiper test mission to launch on Oct 6

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

The ultimate goal is to place 3,200 satellites into low Earth orbit.

Jeff Bezos is moving one step closer to entering the broadband satellite market with its venture, Project Kuiper. Amazon-led Project Kuiper aims to place a swarm of thousands of small satellites or constellations into low Earth orbit (LEO).

The primary objective of this project is to extend internet access to regions currently lacking reliable connectivity, particularly rural and remote areas where the installation of internet infrastructure is either costly or logistically challenging.

Continue reading “Amazon’s Project Kuiper test mission to launch on Oct 6” »

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