,
27 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
60 sats are production design, with no KA antenna. Some of them might not work, small possibility none will work. Crazy technology and they're very hard.
No LEO constellation has worked without going bankrupt 😳 No one has succeeded in a viable LEO constellation, but @elonmusk thinks they'll be successful!
60 satellites for this one (different numbers in other future launches), each launch is a terabit of useful connectivity, heaviest payload F9 or FH has EVER launched, more solar power on these 60 satellites than the entire ISS!!!
6 more launches before operational. Coverage map is very complex, but additional launches increase coverage.
World wide coverage around 24 launches. They'll continue to iterate and improve the design and ultimately there'll be many thousands of satellites in orbit
Taking great consideration for orbital debris. Big reason why they went with the lower orbit to help clear out dead satellites.
They can maneuver around orbital debris using orbital thrusters!
Satellites are powered by an ION drive using Krypton. Sounds like a straight up super-villain thing to do, @elonmusk
Satellites are designed to burn up on reentry.
They see this as a key stepping stone to establishing revenue for advanced rockets and a self sustaining city on Mars! I love that.
Launch satellite is only about $3 Billion revenue a year, internet connectivity revenue could be around $30 billion!!!
Krypton is a lot cheaper than Xenon. ISP of ~ 1,500! Not bad. More mass limited than density limited on this architecture.
Connect with the satellites about an hour after liftoff over Tazmania.
They're going to SHOW the deployment and no one has seen anything like this. They're going to ROTATE the stage and the satellites will be deployed like "spreading a deck of cards on a table" maybe like a new "Korolev Cross"... 🤔 They might lightly bump into each other.
Biggest concerns, solar arrays, phase array antennas, ion engines. Lots of new technology on the satellites.
After 800 satellites, it will really be mostly operational. They'll continue to deploy more and more to not be bandwidth constraint.
You need 6 planes minimum for continuous operation around the world. This is kind of version 1. They have interesting ideas for 2 and 3 and continue to iterate.
They hope to sell their services already to telecom and others by end of the year, maybe early next year if things go well.
Receivers are about the size of a medium-ish pizza. Electronically phase array steered antenna means you can mount it off angle and don't need to point it perfectly. SUB 20 ms latency!
Just plug it in and it works! Woah. It will work on mobile devices like car or plane or boat.
Receivers can do ground bounce links.
Version 2 and 3, they hope to have laser satellite links.
A year and a half maybe 2 years, SpaceX will probably have more satellites in orbit than all other satellites COMBINED!!!
Starship isn't required for this system, but they'd like to switch to Starship because the launch cost could come much less. It costs more to deliver the satellites than they cost to make!
They're hoping for a 4 - 5 year timeframe / lifespan.
Conference call has ended. See you tonight! I'm getting the stream prepped as we speak! 🙌
