Tomorrow SpaceX will launch 64 satellites at one time which would be a US record.
Eight of the satellites will be from companies building a global Internet of Things (IoT) by revolutionizing satellite communications.
Most of today’s IoT devices, such as smart meters and agricultural sensors, rely on Wi-Fi or cellular signals, leaving remote areas, farms, and vast expanses of the world’s oceans without connectivity.
The new satellites will let shippers track assets at sea, farmers to check crops, or governments monitor bridges and infrastructure at far lower cost.
Startup Astrocast will have nanosatellites for companies to connect machines.
Internet of Things space start-ups are planning to lhave constellations of between 60 and 100 satellites. Together with a handful of ground stations, these should eventually get latencies down to about every 15 or 30 minutes. Internet of Things usually only need daily updates.
SpaceX will get experience releasing large numbers of satellites. This will be needed for the SpaceX Starlink internet network. The Starlink system will have revenue providing premium internet connections for financial centers. There will also be internet access fees. Elon Musk has the goal of handling half of the internet’s traffic. Network access fees for half of the internet would be worth billions of dollars every year.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Single dispensing seems to be it:
Post # 2411 @ “SpaceX – now a satellite manufacturer (Starlink)” thread in the “SpaceX Vehicles and Missions ” subforum
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36552.msg1881477#msg1881477
Crude but efficient rule of thumb is to completely ignore MSM for anything technical re: space etc, and go to where actual engineers discuss.
I think the FCC requirement is that half of the Starlink constellation must be deployed by 2024. The initial phase is supposed to be 24 orbital planes with 66 satellites per orbital plane: https://www.spaceitbridge.com/spacex-updates-starlink-plans-for-fcc-lower-faster.htm
Each Starlink satellite is about the size of a fridge and it is estimated that about 25 max can fit inside a standard Falcon 9 fairing. So each orbital plane will require 3 Falcon 9 launches with 22 satellites a shot.
There is no need for the Falcon 9 upper stage to change orbit. All 22 satellites per Falcon9 launch will be inserted into the same orbital plane.
If BFR reaches operational capability before the whole Starlink network is deployed, it most likely can deploy an entire orbital plane’s worth of satellites all in 1 shot.
Another article discussing the next 15 years for space x states the plan is to launch 12000 starlink sattelites at 240 per flight. That apparently is the reason they are redesigning the falcon heavy. The plan is to have them all in orbit by 2025. Space is doing all this on $1 – $2 billion a year. And our government is so set on seeing him fail they have both the FBI and SEC on his case. I bet half the insiders in the world are waiting to get a piece of this company at rock bottom prices once Musk has been sent on a one way trip to Mars.
Do your research, SpaceX isnt releasing multiple Spacecraft, the company that bought this launch, SpaceFlight, has done all the work and is control of all of that. SpaceX is providing the ride.
I understand the StarLink satellites are going to have Hall thrusters for station keeping. I don’t believe there’s any technical reason that they couldn’t all be dumped in the same orbit, and then disperse themselves across the various orbits under their own power. With the higher ISP, it would be more efficient than having the entire rocket visit each orbital plane.
It’s mostly a question of whether they’d be permitted to do it that way.
“Internet of Things usually only need daily updates”.
Ööööö, NOPE.
Also, it is supposed to do so out of Vandenberg and land on Just Read The Instructions (drone barge). If it does launch and land successfully, it will be the first Falcon 9 to have launched out of all operational SpaceX pads and land on all operational SpaceX drone barges.
I wonder if this flight will help develop the ability to deploy starlink sats. I’ve been wondering how that will work.
I’d guess you’d drop several upon reaching LEO, then restart an engine, change orbit, and drop some more, do until empty.
Delayed to December 1st
It will be the first time a Falcon 9 booster is flying its third mission. The booster to be used on this launch is B1046, which has flown twice already on high-energy geostationary transfer orbit launches (Bangabandhu-1 and Merah Putih).
Looking forward to seeing how many flights can B1046 do before it is retired.
This will be a very important proof of confidence for their launchers and their capabilities of delivering many payloads at once.
This is definitely a preview of the Starlink launches. Which in fact shouldn’t take too long to start happening, given the tight deadline.
There’s no ‘S’ in IoT.
Oh wait…
A joke that says it all: “You know what the “S” in IoT stands for? Security!”