Posted on 03/09/2018 9:24:56 PM PST by BenLurkin
The FCC has denied a space startup permission to launch a collection of communications satellites after discovering that it had already launched some — after being told not to. Swarm Technologies, still in stealth mode, appears to have gone ahead with the deployment of four satellites deemed too small to be tracked and therefore unsafe to put into orbit.
IEEE Spectrum put the pieces together from public FCC documents and some launch manifests. Swarm’s original plan was to put several very small satellites — smaller even than 1U Cubesats — in orbit to test its experimental communications system. \ But the small size meant the satellites couldn’t be tracked with existing space monitoring technology, and the FCC, which must approve communications satellite launches, considered this too great a risk and declined to authorize Swarm’s proposed deployment.
...
While the company did reapply with larger satellites, it seems to have gone ahead with the original plan of launching the tiny satellites despite the FCC’s warning not to. This is evident from the manifest of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PDF) that took off in January, which included four “SpaceBEEs” matching the description of Swarm’s unauthorized craft.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
They should have launched a Tesla instead.
This link actually gives more detail.
Just locate and launch from another country. They don’t own space.
I don’t even know what they hope to accomplish with a VHF satellite relay.
The bandwidth is certainly minuscule.
It’s a matter of safety, not owning space. If I put up a $100 Million satellite, I need to know that my orbit insertion path is clear. That I will not be hit by someone who is doing his own thing. This is by international agreement. We may not know what the international satellites are (weather, communications, spy, etc) but we know something is there.
These California asshats are endangering everyone and astronaut lives by doing this. We don’t know the orbit, we don’t t know the predicted position, we don’t know what they contain and we don’t know how to avoid them.
To call them criminally negligent is an understatement.
Well, how about tracking the location of every freight shipment on every highway in the US? Or vital information on the health, location, or performance of any other income-roducing asset? Many such high value apps don’t require porn-download sized bandwidth, but rather the ability to reliably transfer small packets of information through foilage and adverse weather conditions where VHF propagation is superior to L band or above. Qualcomm (and others) have created billion-dollar businesses using mostly terrestrial networks, the cost and coverage advantages of a space-based network are obious.
You should understand what you’re talking about before posting. Astronauts do not occuy LEO. Look it up, there’s a starting point.
Definitions very, but a typical LEO is 90 to 250 miles above the earth, the ISS typically orbits at 250 which is with in that range. Wikipedia puts LEO at 99 to 1200 miles.
So yes, astronauts would be endangered.
You know, you could look it up or something.
Based on a reading of the treaty covering liability, India would likely be on the hook for damages if any mishap occurred due to an errant payload.
The operations service which filled the space on the launch manifest for the Space Bees might have issues also, though that is a bit murky as to what paperwork is actually required—if any.
FCC reference: 47 C.F.R. § 25.114(d)(14)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/25.114
It’s a matter of safety, not owning space. If I put up a $100 Million satellite, I need to know that my orbit insertion path is clear. That I will not be hit by someone who is doing his own thing. This is by international agreement. We may not know what the international satellites are (weather, communications, spy, etc) but we know something is there.
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What about micro-meteorites? No way to track them. That’s what these satellites amount to.
The Space Surveillance Network is tracking these four picosats with no problem. Just loaded their elsets with an epoch date from March 4th and their apogee/perigee are at approximately 500km in a near polar retrograde LEO orbit. Here’s a link if you want to see a visual of one the orbits:
https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=43142
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
"DoD’s Space Surveillance Network tracks discrete objects as small as 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter in low Earth orbit and about 1 yard (1 meter) in geosynchronous orbit. "
They did. From the excerpt above:
"While the company did reapply with larger satellites, it seems to have gone ahead with the original plan of launching the tiny satellites despite the FCC’s warning not to. This is evident from the manifest of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PDF) that took off in January, which included four “SpaceBEEs” matching the description of Swarm’s unauthorized craft."
these microsats are envisioned a ~ grams in mass,
and may be below the threshold you cite.
10cm x 10cm x 2.8cm. Presumably with a flat side solar panel and some kind of antenna - probably a conformal phased array. In other words, not intentionally stealthy. I’ll bet you the Air Force and Missile Defense Agency know exactly where they are, whether they’ll admit it or not.
bigbob, you need to follow your own advice. From NASA:
Where Do Satellites Orbit Earth?
The International Space Station is in low Earth orbit, or LEO. LEO is the first 100 to 200 miles (161 to 322 km) of space. LEO is the easiest orbit to get to and stay in. One complete orbit in LEO takes about 90 minutes.
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-orbit-58.html
Hey bigbob, and anyone else, here is a primer on orbital mechanics from NASA.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OrbitsCatalog/
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