

Buy This Satellite - baxter
http://buythissatellite.org/

======
jaysonelliot
The organization fails to say what's in it for anyone who would donate. It
sounds like it's a purely philanthropic project. Philanthropy is a noble
cause, but if that's their intent, perhaps they should be more clear about
their road map.

For example, what happens if they raise the seed financing of $150,000 to get
started, but another bidder buys the satellite while they're ramping up? What
happens to the money raised?

How will donors be able to track the success of the project in the short term
and long term? Will donors have a voice in the decision-making process when it
comes time to put the satellite into use?

The t-shirts are cool and all that, but they need to establish some
credibility and publish a detailed plan.

------
stelfer
I was sort of interested, but...

Of the many activities in life for which prior experience are essential for
success: buying assets out of bankruptcy; re-tasking a communications
satellite...

So, I perused the bios, and I'm just really not convinced that they could pull
it off. Looks like a bunch of smart and really well meaning (young) people.
Needs more billionaire greybeard.

~~~
drats
Mark Shuttleworth would be a good choice in my mind. Rich, with connections to
more money. Experience in space so he understands the issues and has
connections to the right kind of people to manage the technical side. Plus
he's an African with an interest in philanthropy. Then again, for huge amount
of money there are other ways to get lots of people connected. But being able
to casually mention your communications satellite in conversation also has an
allure..

------
51Cards
While the concept is a noble one several questions come to mind...

They're going to build a network around a single satellite with no backup or
(it appears) budget to build / launch a new one?

How do they intend to move this satellite? I know they talked to the owners
and they say it's possible but I'd be curious to know the cost of the project.
I am not an orbital mechanics engineer but it from my limited knowledge
satellites only have enough fuel for minor course adjustments over their
lifetime. Even if you could use much of it to completely reposition that would
foreshorten the useful life of the satellite? And as of a few months from now
the only current orbital recapture system (the shuttle) is being mothballed.

Just my initial quick thoughts. Sometimes great things come from seemingly
grandiose plans though.

~~~
roedog
It is possible to move a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, and done in
practice.

They will move the satellite by firing the East/West stationkeeping thrusters.
Geosynchronous satellites, like the terrestar 1, need to periodically adjust
their orbit to stay in their assigned slot. Aside from electronics failures,
the operational life of a satellite is determined by how much fuel they carry,
and how often stationkeeping is needed.

These kinds of moves are done currently. For example, the GOES constellation
operated by NOAA has a backup satellite on-orbit ready to be moved to replace
a failed satellite. It costs extra fuel from the limited onboard tank. In the
case of GOES they plan for this fuel use. For Terrestar, it would shorten the
15 year lifespan some.

------
brk
This project seems to be filled with fail.

Aside from the satellite itself, it seems this project is dependent on a "low
cost open source modem", design and details TBD.

They reference a $12 Indian laptop, which has already been mostly proven to be
an unrealistic pipe-dream. The $12 cost is the cost to the end-user after a
government subsidy. Not realistic or scalable in terms of building a business
dependent on this device.

No mention of the ISP on the other end of this satellite that is providing the
free access (vague mention of reselling high-speed access through other
ISP's).

I'm not familiar with how much bandwidth a single satellite can handle, but it
can't be more than a couple of Gb/s, especially for an older unit. They are
talking about a footprint of 6-249M people. Even on the low-end, this doesn't
seem like it's going to provide a super-usable connection.

This is a noble project, and I wish them luck, but remain highly skeptical
that the idea was formed in conjunction with beers, bongs, or both.

------
ancymon
Maybe I am a little bit ignorant but I suspect that the problem is that most
of the people in Africa don't have computers (or other devices to use the
Internet). Even more, I believe that solving hunger or HIV issues is a little
bit more important for people living in poor countries.

~~~
xd
No, you are not in the slightest bit ignorant.

I guess it's like the OLPC thingy .. while I agree everyone should have access
to a computer and the world of information .. clean water, basic drugs and a
society that allows free expression is way more important. Anything else just
distracts from those basic rights (as I see it anyhow).

------
adulau
A satellite alone is just a dumb amplifier. If you want to share bandwidth and
access, you'll need a lot of ground equipments to operate the access-layer
(e.g. relying on DVB-RCS).

The project is not talking about the Telemetry Tracking and Control (TT&C) of
the satellite. TerreStar-1 is a GEO satellite and you'll need to make regular
manoeuvrings to keep the footprint stable too. Operating a satellite is costly
and require a 24/7 staff... I don't really think that the project is realistic
with such level of funding.

------
patrickgzill
How much Wifi setup could you do with even $150K , which is the cost of just
getting started (1st stage) with this satellite setup?

Figure a very tall tower for $50K, then smaller 75 foot guyed towers at $5k
each. Decent Wifi-band outdoor equipment is less than $1k per end including
all wiring. Add a small generator and battery backup (even solar panels) at
each location - you are talking far less than 300W (0.3kW) needed to run each
tower.

So if you found a number of towns/cities you could serve, you could place the
tall tower in the center with the small towers at each town. Now all you need
is some form of Internet at the big tower to feed everyone else.

------
waterlesscloud
I must be reading the text wrong in that video, because it seems to say that
Google answers 88 million search queries in a month.

~~~
wccrawford
Yeah, apparently it's closer to billion.

<http://website101.com/press/google-76-billion-searches/>

~~~
sahillavingia
Actually, your source is farther away from a billion than his was. :-)

------
plnewman
Man, Black Friday is getting out of hand...

------
JohnAllen
Yeah, this seems like something Google should do. They're probably already
looking at it. It's their job.

------
baxter
The blog post on "A Human Right" might answer some of the questions posted
here: <http://www.blog.ahumanright.org/2010/10/buy-that-satellite/>

