Server Sky?
Keith Lofstrom
at PTP at the monthly on the 28th? I saw one yes vote on the list,
but nothing official. Yes or no are both OK, but I need a response
for planning.
If yes, I have 15 minute, 30 minute, and 45 minute versions of
the talk. Since it is very new tech, the 15 minute version may
result in a lot more questions.
Keith
--
Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
Russell Senior
Keith> Do you want to see a Server Sky ( http://server-sky.com )
Keith> presentation at PTP at the monthly on the 28th? I saw one yes
Keith> vote on the list, but nothing official. Yes or no are both OK,
Keith> but I need a response for planning.
Keith> If yes, I have 15 minute, 30 minute, and 45 minute versions of
Keith> the talk. Since it is very new tech, the 15 minute version may
Keith> result in a lot more questions.
I've seen parts of it 2 or 3 times, however, i seem to keep missing
the first few minutes, so I won't mind seeing it again. Maybe I can
ask better questions if I see the first part.
So, yes, officially, please. Either the 30 or 45 minute version is
fine by me.
--
Russell Senior, President
rus...@personaltelco.net
Gary
there's not a consensus.
Sam Churchill
- Sam
---
yes, please. the longer the better but I'll settle for the mid-range if
there's not a consensus.
Sam Churchill
(www.dailywireless.org)
Keith Lofstrom
I will give the medium-length presentation; if you are already full of
questions, go to http://server-sky.com and study up.
( and Russell - there is a lot of new stuff since May and June, so
I hope you will find that engaging )
Primarily, I am interested in feedback and ideas regards community
communications. In the beginning, Server Sky will be communications
poor and computer-rich, used for weather modelling and genome
sequencing and other compute-bound tasks. Longer term, it will be
used for internet downlink (moderate bandwidth up, ultrahigh bandwidth
down). Ground footprints will be kilometer-sized, and a given
footprint can be talking to hundreds of arrays, more if the ground
receivers act together as a distributed antenna. There is room
in orbit for hundreds of thousands of large arrays, so the system
is monopoly-resistant.
This seems like a good match with the original PTP vision of
meshed neighborhoods and cities with multiprovider backhaul.
A PTP-optimized design may be replicated around the world, a
decade from now.
So the question is, given physical and economic constraints, how
can we design the orbiting system to match the community system
even better? I hope we can explore that at the monthly.
And can someone volunteer as scribe? If we come up with some
great ideas, I would like them added to a Server Sky wiki page.
Or the PTP wiki, which I can link to.
Gary
> So the question is, given physical and economic constraints, how
> can we design the orbiting system to match the community system
> even better? I hope we can explore that at the monthly.
>
This may sound like an odd question but how do amateur satellite
hobbyists currently get launch clearance for their projects? Is it wrong
to assume that space is somewhat like international waters go as far as
jurisdiction goes do all space faring nations have a say in what goes
where? Who says what can be put in LEO, MEO, or GEO? U.S. Strategic
Command is already tracking over 8000 objects in low earth orbit so I'm
sure several parties will notice if you launch something from U.S. soil
in to space. Couldn't you get in serious trouble without clearing
something like this with the authorities? And I haven't even brought up
the question of what individuals can do to minimize the chances of a
Kessler Syndrome...? The cost of entry in this kind of hobby must be
high but what if it becomes affordable some day for every grade school
to launch their own satellite? Personally, I think that we be pretty
damn cool so I'm not trying to be a wet towel. I'm just curious.
-Gary
Keith Lofstrom
Great questions. The organization in charge of satellite communication
and orbit assignment is the International Telecommunication Union
Radiocommunication Sector, ITU-R . The AMSAT folk deal with them.
AMSAT satellites are generally spring-deployed "ballast" attached to
launch systems instead of dead weight, to balance larger satellites.
They've launched about 60 satellites this way.
Don Kessler predicted that at some point, uncontrolled space objects
would smash into other objects, creating more debris, more collisions,
and eventually a ring of lethal gravel in orbit. This is a slow
process, with an exponential growth time measured in years, but is
inexorable. If a pond has a single organism in it, which doubles
every day, and doubles for 39 days to fill half the pond, how long will
it take to fill it? The answer is one more day. The Kessler Syndrome
is like that. The trick is to capture the stuff and do something
useful with it, or deorbit it, rather than let it bang around forever.
I've got friends working on that. Whether they get funding to fix
the problem before it gets too expensive is the big question. It
gets more expensive with the same exponential growth time, and
becomes too expensive before the Kessler Syndrome (which is underway,
according to Don) becomes really noticable.
The biggest problems with Server Sky will be political, not economic
or technical. Fortunately, local law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLC
negotiated with ITU-R for the bandwidth for the Clear network, so we
have local talent for this. In general, all the capabilities we need
are in the Northwest, and most are in the Portland area. One of the
reasons I am pushing this is to create jobs for friends and neighbors.
We won't launch this as individuals, nor will individuals have
complete control of individual server-sats. But many of us can
make valuable individual contributions to making this happen, in
the right way.