Aw, Son of Teledesic rises again. The question of course is what would be cheaper, batch launching dozens a time on a Falcon heavy or single launching off of White Knight two? The other question of course is if the improved coverage over the 80 plus percent of the world that is uninhabited is worth the effort. But Sir Branson is a good salesman and so he might just sell them on the idea.
LauncherOne is intended to launch small satellites from 100 KG for sun synchronous orbit to 225 KG for low inclination LEO. The Teledesic satellite design started small but got pretty hefty before the whole program collapsed. Electronics and many other space systems have improved a lot since then but it’d still be a challenge. Even if you could design and build the satellites small enough, launching dozens at one time on a big booster like Falcon Heavy isn’t a very good way to populate your constellation. You’d be launching bunches of satellites into the same orbital plane. Better to use a smaller booster like the Falcon 9 to fill each orbital plane with a single launch. Depending on the size of the satellites, even an F9 might be overkill.
Given how long its taken VG to get to SpaceShipTwo they may be able to just use transporters to put them into orbit 🙂
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the vast majority of that “80 plus percent of the world that is uninhabited” consists of oceans, seas and major lakes. More relevant is that the inhabited “belt” on Earth is between roughly 70 degrees N. and 45 degrees S. latitudes.
Aw, Son of Teledesic rises again. The question of course is what would be cheaper, batch launching dozens a time on a Falcon heavy or single launching off of White Knight two? The other question of course is if the improved coverage over the 80 plus percent of the world that is uninhabited is worth the effort. But Sir Branson is a good salesman and so he might just sell them on the idea.
LauncherOne is intended to launch small satellites from 100 KG for sun synchronous orbit to 225 KG for low inclination LEO. The Teledesic satellite design started small but got pretty hefty before the whole program collapsed. Electronics and many other space systems have improved a lot since then but it’d still be a challenge. Even if you could design and build the satellites small enough, launching dozens at one time on a big booster like Falcon Heavy isn’t a very good way to populate your constellation. You’d be launching bunches of satellites into the same orbital plane. Better to use a smaller booster like the Falcon 9 to fill each orbital plane with a single launch. Depending on the size of the satellites, even an F9 might be overkill.
Given how long its taken VG to get to SpaceShipTwo they may be able to just use transporters to put them into orbit 🙂
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the vast majority of that “80 plus percent of the world that is uninhabited” consists of oceans, seas and major lakes. More relevant is that the inhabited “belt” on Earth is between roughly 70 degrees N. and 45 degrees S. latitudes.