[sebringj]

This is cool but now I'm more concerned in learning how launching micro satellites has become so easy for the masses which would be my opposite reaction normally. Meaning this is not without bad side effects. I watched "in a nutshell" about the end of space in that orbiting debris is becoming an issue as its an exponential threat over time as small debris moving at 20 K mph vaporizes things it comes in contact with, hence more debris, more collisions and so forth eventually creating a death shield to any incoming/outgoing space transport, effectively halting space travel for centuries. Here is that video FYI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS1ibDImAYU I don't see how this is helping but possibly there will be cleanup solutions.

[rcxdude]

These micro-satellites are not high enough up for them or any debris to remain in orbit for a significant amount of time without station-keeping. Cube-sats will usually only last a few years before de-orbiting due to the very slight atmospheric drag at the height they operate. This is a deliberate decision to avoid the issue you mention (and the various space agencies do co-ordinate on this: see https://www.iadc-online.org/). They also have rules which apply to larger satellites which mean that mean if it does not have a naturally decaying orbit there needs to be a plan to de-orbit it or put it into a 'safe' orbit at end-of-life.

[sebringj]

thanks i should have looked into this more seems

[garmaine]

How? This isn’t launching space satellites.

[jrockway]

I think he is concerned that now that there is an easy way to set up an antenna on the ground, there will be a wave of rocket launches sending new satellites into orbit.

Of course, setting up a radio receiver on the ground is not the hard part about launching satellites, so this is unlikely to change much. When AWS starts letting you launch satellites for $1.99/pound, then we can start worrying.

[MrBuddyCasino]

Altough that would be awesome. Spin up additional satellites via API. Takes a few days until they’re online, but at least they stream the launch video feed in the AWS console.

Also, I think they kind of jumped the shark with this one.

[jeffbarr]

No sharks were jumped in the making of this service or blog post.

[sebringj]

The article mentions ubiquitous micro satellites. This tech is simply following from that although not directly stated in the title. The fact that these micro satellites are cheap and so easy to cookie cutter and deploy is great in terms of tech but seems to compound the issue of space debris. Anyway, just after becoming aware of this I was less enthusiastic about the communications aspects.

[rtkwe]

Down linking data has never been the particularly difficult part of working with a satellite though getting it up there with all the approvals that requires was and still is the major hurdle. Just because it's easy to downlink doesn't mean the FCC is going to suddenly rubberstamp every startup's 10k satellite constellation.

[7952]

Depends how much data you want to downlink though. Sats in LEO have fairly small footprints and you can only get data when that footprint is over a ground station.