Amazon Planning 3,236-Satellite Constellation for Internet Connectivity

https://www.space.com/amazon-plans-3236-satellite-constellation-for-internet.html

WASHINGTON — Amazon is joining the list of companies planning a constellation of thousands of satellites for broadband internet connectivity.

The internet shopping giant has asked international spectrum regulators to provide spectrum rights for a constellation of 3,236 satellites.

Amazon hasn’t disclosed who would build the satellites or when they would be launched, and hasn’t yet filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for U.S. market access for the system.

Amazon’s constellation is filed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) under the name Kuiper Systems. Amazon confirmed its connection to Kuiper Systems in a statement to SpaceNews.

“Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world,” Amazon said. “This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision.”

News of Amazon’s constellation application was first reported by GeekWire.

The Amazon constellation calls for three layers of satellites — 784 in a 590-kilometer orbit, 1,156 in a 630-kilometer orbit, and 1,296 in a 610-kilometer orbit.

Many details about Amazon’s proposed constellation remain unknown, such as who would build the satellites and when Amazon hopes to have them in orbit. Amazon has not yet applied with the FCC for permission to serve the U.S. market with the constellation. That application would include more details about the constellation, including how Amazon would deorbit satellites to maintain a sustainable space environment.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also founded the launch company Blue Origin, which is developing a reusable rocket called New Glenn to launch government and commercial satellites. The rocket’s first flight is expected in 2021.

News of Amazon’s ITU filing came the same day as reports that Bezos will retain full ownership of Blue Origin after his divorce. In a statement April 4, MacKenzie Bezos said that her husband will keep his full ownership of the spaceflight company as part of their divorce settlement. Bezos will transfer 25 percent of his existing stake in Amazon to MacKenzie, but keep “sole voting authority” over those shares. Even after the settlement Bezos will remain the wealthiest person in the world, with his remaining Amazon shares worth an estimated $108 billion.

 AWS Ground Station 

Amazon and Lockheed Martin in November announced the launch of AWS Ground Station to leverage the cloud-computing capabilities of Amazon Web Services to support communications with satellites, particularly those in low Earth orbit.

Amazon’s proposed constellation, according to the ITU filing, would circle the Earth much closer than some of the other broadband constellations under development.

OneWeb, for example, is targeting 1,200 kilometers for its initial constellation of 650 satellites.

Telesat plans to have satellites in 1,000-kilometer and 1,250-kilometer orbits, though it’s not clear how many of its envisioned 292-satellite system would go in each orbit, since the target size of the constellation is 58 satellites above what the FCC approved for U.S. market access.

LeoSat’s proposed constellation of 108 satellites would operate at 1,400 kilometers.

SpaceX wants to operate most of its future 4,425-satellite constellation between the altitudes of 1,110 and 1,325 kilometers (though the company asked the FCC in November to authorize 1,584 satellites at a lower 550-kilometer orbit).

Many spectrum applications never progress much beyond the filing of the initial paperwork. Boeing applied in 2016 with the FCC for a constellation of between 1,396 and 2,956 satellites, but said last June that it hadn’t moved forward with those plans. The FCC’s international bureau told SpaceNews that Boeing has withdrawn two applications in the past year.

Amazon’s system, if realized, will likely cost billions of dollars, not unlike the projected cost of constellations for SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat and LeoSat. Bezos said last year that he already sells $1 billion in Amazon stock annually to fund Blue Origin.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.  

via Space.com http://bit.ly/2WPkkGi

April 5, 2019 at 02:07PM

Two rockets dropped tracers into the northern lights and the result was glorious

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1487619

Accelerated time-lapse video of AZURE mission lighting up the sky.

Late Friday night, two sounding rockets launched from a small spaceport in northern Norway. The two skinny rockets soared to an altitude of 320km, and along the way each released a visible gas to fall through, and illuminate conditions inside the aurora borealis. Some of the resulting images were stunning.

This NASA-funded AZURE mission, which stands for Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment, is one of a series of sounding rocket missions launching over the next two years as part of an international collaboration know as the The Grand Challenge Initiative – Cusp. The goal of these flights will be to study the region where Earth’s magnetic field lines bend down into the atmosphere, and particles from space mix with those from the planet.

Friday night’s mission involved two Black Brant XI-A sounding rockets, a three stage sounding booster with a long heritage dating back to Canadian military research in the 1950s. The Black Brant rockets launched within two minutes of one another from the picturesque from the Andøya Space Center in Norway, beginning at 22:14 UTC Friday.

After their launch, the two rockets ascended into space while on-board instrumentation measured the atmospheric density and temperature in order to determine the ideal time to release visible tracers—trimethyl aluminum and a barium/strontium mixture. These gas tracers were released at altitudes varying from 115 to 250km.

As they fell through the atmosphere, the gases ionized, and produced colorful clouds that allowed researchers to better understand the flow of particles in the ionosphere, the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere that forms the boundary between the planet and outer space. For observers below, the tracers also put on quite a show.

Launch video of the AZURE mission.

By studying the movement of particles within the aurora borealis, scientists hope to better understand how the energy of these phenomenon effect atmospheric behavior.

Listing image by Andoya Space Center

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

April 7, 2019 at 09:19AM

Report Finds More Than 47,000 ‘Structurally Deficient’ Bridges In The U.S.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/710364158/report-finds-more-than-47-000-structurally-deficient-bridges-in-the-u-s?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

New York

A new report from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association estimates it will take more than 80 years to fix all of the nation’s deficient bridges.

(Image credit: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images)

via NPR Topics: News https://n.pr/2m0CM10

April 6, 2019 at 12:57AM

Watch this boat crawl onto land

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/06/watch-this-boat-crawl-onto-land/

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April 6, 2019 at 02:23PM