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The problem has to do with cross-section -- these satellites will each be small, a few hundred kilograms each. In comparison, cubesats are 1-3 kg, and big satellites, which are most of the existing ones, are a few tons of mass each.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

Also, with satellites at 1,100 km, they'll be above all the crap in LEO.




and solves the other problem of Big High internet, which is latency. At 1000km you could have single-hop round-trips in <10ms.


ah interesting. My main concern when reading this was latency, which has traditionally been crap with satellite ISP. In todays world i also feel that once you have a certain bandwidth (say 10-20Mbps) the benefits of a latency of <50ms vs 200ms outweigh those of more bandwidth because literally everything, from loading web content, chatting, making calls, realtime anything, is more responsive.

So the latency being so much better with this (hopefully) excites me :)


What is the orbit for current satellite ISPs?


I think they're mostly in geosynch/geostationary at 36,000-42,000km or so, with latencies of 250-350ms (pure travel, not including queuing or processing delays)


Inmarsat's Global Xpress system is geostationary. http://www.inmarsat.com/service/global-xpress/

No specifics on the site about the exact altitude, but probably in order of those listed here.


Iridium SATs are in LEO at 485 mi


At 2.4 kilobits, Iridium is not a major player in satellite Internet.


Though there's only one civil ground station, so the latency to your wired neighbour can still mean an around-the-world trip.


Geostationary, so ~36000km




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