Scotius Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 And if ground-orbit connector could be miniaturized to fit in, say... a smartphone? Yowzers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elthy Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 That wont work since you need targeted beams and thus large phased array antennas. The energy usage will propably be to high for mobile, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Static fire ahead of tomorrow's Starlink launch. 4 hours ago, Elthy said: That wont work since you need targeted beams and thus large phased array antennas. The energy usage will propably be to high for mobile, too. Yeah, Elon said it was like the size of a pizza box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 4 hours ago, Elthy said: That wont work since you need targeted beams and thus large phased array antennas. The energy usage will propably be to high for mobile, too. You could probably just carry the antenna in, say, your Tesla, and beam the network to your phone from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 (weather was not great tomorrow, so they shifted to Sunday) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 1 hour ago, tater said: Yeah, Elon said it was like the size of a pizza box. Do we have more details regarding ground equipment? Is line of sight (outdoor mounting) required? What about urban settings where skyscrapers are in the way? They did some test using the first two sats, but are those results available? Regarding power consumption, we can take a look at a modern satellite phone, such as this one: https://satellitephonestore.com/files/support/inmarsat_bgan_support/technical_specifications.pdf It says <20W during transmission. That is way too much for a mobile phone battery, even at low bandwidth needed for a phone call. Broadband would need significantly higher power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 1 hour ago, tater said: (weather was not great tomorrow, so they shifted to Sunday) Darb. But wait...now they are actually postponing launches in favor of better recovery conditions! I know it's entirely their own mission, but they didn't used to get the opportunity to do this so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 1 hour ago, Shpaget said: Do we have more details regarding ground equipment? Is line of sight (outdoor mounting) required? What about urban settings where skyscrapers are in the way? They did some test using the first two sats, but are those results available? Regarding power consumption, we can take a look at a modern satellite phone, such as this one: https://satellitephonestore.com/files/support/inmarsat_bgan_support/technical_specifications.pdf It says <20W during transmission. That is way too much for a mobile phone battery, even at low bandwidth needed for a phone call. Broadband would need significantly higher power. There was a pic posted on reddit, but they were on a flatbed, and covered in little domes to hide them. Everyone is waiting to see what it looks like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 It's unlikely and it would inconvenience a lot of other people but I kinda hope its postponed until the 20th or 21st because I will be down in Florida at that time. That's quite a long time for it to be delayed, though. I don't think there are any other launches that could be in that timeframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 9 minutes ago, tater said: There was a pic posted on reddit, but they were on a flatbed, and covered in little domes to hide them. Everyone is waiting to see what it looks like. As they are designed to self adjust to stay level its smart to have them under an dome if you have it on an camper or similar. The self adjustment seems a bit redundant on an stationary unit however but it probably not very expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Have SpaceX made any changes to the Starlink satellites to make them less reflective (maybe painted them vantablack) after the big ground-based astronomy uproar that they caused? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wjolcz Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Just now, RealKerbal3x said: Have SpaceX made any changes to the Starlink satellites to make them less reflective (maybe painted them vantablack) after the big ground-based astronomy uproar that they caused? Weren't there a batch of darker ones on the last launch or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 4 minutes ago, Wjolcz said: Weren't there a batch of darker ones on the last launch or something? I looked at the wikipedia article for Starlink. It appears that one satellite on Starlink 2 had an experimental coating that reduced its albedo, but it doesn't give any information on how many, if any, satellites on Starlink 3 had this coating, or if 4 will either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wjolcz Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) 5 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said: I looked at the wikipedia article for Starlink. It appears that one satellite on Starlink 2 had an experimental coating that reduced its albedo, but it doesn't give any information on how many, if any, satellites on Starlink 3 had this coating, or if 4 will either. That's probably because they are still experimenting with it. Maybe it wasn't painted on the factory line but modified last-minute by hand instead for testing purposes. Modifying the factory itself probably takes time and money. Not like they lack the latter but since SpaceX is all about reducing costs they won't just employ staellite painters in FL. Edited February 14, 2020 by Wjolcz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, Shpaget said: Do we have more details regarding ground equipment? Is line of sight (outdoor mounting) required? What about urban settings where skyscrapers are in the way? They did some test using the first two sats, but are those results available? Regarding power consumption, we can take a look at a modern satellite phone, such as this one: https://satellitephonestore.com/files/support/inmarsat_bgan_support/technical_specifications.pdf It says <20W during transmission. That is way too much for a mobile phone battery, even at low bandwidth needed for a phone call. Broadband would need significantly higher power. Yer, you need an unobstructed, roof mounted antenna. I heard this is mainly because the signals they use do not penetrate through objects well. Edited February 14, 2020 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSK Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 4 hours ago, Wjolcz said: That's probably because they are still experimenting with it. Maybe it wasn't painted on the factory line but modified last-minute by hand instead for testing purposes. Modifying the factory itself probably takes time and money. Not like they lack the latter but since SpaceX is all about reducing costs they won't just employ staellite painters in FL. Instead of paint, I'm wondering if they could use some kind of optical processing. You can do all sorts of funky things with a metal surface by rastering a pulsed laser over it - including making it extremely black. Advantages - no paint required so there's no extra weight added and no coatings to spall off in orbit due to thermal cycling or whatever. Disadvantages - expensive, relatively slow and requires some fairly precise optics if you're treating anything over than a flat sheet. All in all it's probably not worth it right now but it would be a gold-standard solution to reducing albedo if that becomes a serious matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 No question now who is going first (we all knew this, but NASA just made it official). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatastrophicFailure Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) Ninja’d. Still w00t. Edited February 14, 2020 by CatastrophicFailure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 They deleted the tweet. As if it wasn't clearly a simple fact that SpaceX will beat Boeing at this point. There's not even a second Starliner ready, vs Dragon at the Cape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xd the great Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 4 hours ago, tater said: They deleted the tweet. As if it wasn't clearly a simple fact that SpaceX will beat Boeing at this point. There's not even a second Starliner ready, vs Dragon at the Cape. Accidents occur. Spoiler Accidents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikegarrison Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Xd the great said: Accidents occur. Reveal hidden contents Accidents. Hopefully not. I'm not sure what the obsession with "who is first" is in this forum, but I think most people (especially NASA) want *both* options as soon as possible and don't care who is first and who is second. There is no extra money involved for that, as far as I know. I get the sense that some people here have a lot emotionally invested in the idea that SpaceX must demonstrate that they got there first. Edited February 15, 2020 by mikegarrison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 (edited) ... Edited February 15, 2020 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, mikegarrison said: Hopefully not. I'm not sure what the obsession with "who is first" is in this forum, but I think most people (especially NASA) want *both* options as soon as possible and don't care who is first and who is second. There is no extra money involved for that, as far as I know. I get the sense that some people here have a lot emotionally invested in the idea that SpaceX must demonstrate that they got there first. It really comes down to bragging rights. As if SpaceX doesn’t have enough impressive accomplishments, getting crew to space first, for (a lot) cheaper, is a big ol’ ostrich feather in their cap. I’d say it was a shot across Boeing’s bow, but that happened long ago, when SpaceX won their CCrew contract. As for emotional investment, that probably stems from an antipathy against Boeing, probably due to their appearance of foot-dragging/milking on cost+ contracts, along with other displays of apparent mistakes or incompetence. Edited February 15, 2020 by StrandedonEarth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 4 hours ago, mikegarrison said: Hopefully not. I'm not sure what the obsession with "who is first" is in this forum, but I think most people (especially NASA) want *both* options as soon as possible and don't care who is first and who is second. There is no extra money involved for that, as far as I know. I get the sense that some people here have a lot emotionally invested in the idea that SpaceX must demonstrate that they got there first. The "contest" aspect is related entirely to this: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/multimedia/gallery/fd11flag.html I wasn't being a fanboy, it's been an informal competition since commercial crew was started. Who gets to take the flag home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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