Re: Billy boy's satellites [Was - Floating DataHaven]

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 12:16 AM 8/19/96, Vipul Ved Prakash wrote:
>>
>> Vincent Cate wrote:

>> Doesn't the low orbit part mean that the satellites will have a low life
>> expectancy, meaning a new launch every couple of days? (where's Gerald
>> Bull when you need him - oh yes, now I remember ...)

LEO (Low Earth Orbit) is only relative to the main alternative placement
for broadcast satellites: geostationary orbit, out in the Clarke Belt. LEO
satellites are well above significant drag of the troposphere and are
expected to remain in orbit far longer than their lifetimes as useful
transponders.

>The Iridium Project was pretty neat in this respect. I don't know what
>is happenning with it as of now. It had some 230+ satellites, and some
>smart routing techniques, if a satellite goes down.

Actually, far fewer. The original number of satellites (not counting
spares) was equal to the atomic number of iridium, hence the name (though
maybe they altered the number of satellites to match the atomic number?).
They later reduced the needed number by a few, but kept the name.

An Alta Vista search on "iridium AND satellite" produces 1000 hits, so
there's plent of information out there.

There are also two major competing systems, also not yet deployed. One is
the Microsoft-McCaw Cellular project, another is being done by an aerospace
company working with Qualcomm, or a subsidiary. Again, the Web should
produce the information for anyone interested.

Which of the three (and maybe more) systems will actually get deployed, and
which will succeed in the market, is an interesting question.

There's some obvious crypto/GAK/New World Order issues: many countries may
not care for a communications system which allows citizen-units or enemy
agents to make phone calls from the middle of the Kalahari desert or from
within the jungles of Burma.

(The Israelis, for example, are insisting that all handheld units have
Explosives Escrow, for detonation with appropriate official orders.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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