Chhavideep Singh
Source:
The Indian Wire
Amazon has recently asked the Federal Communications Commission to let it launch satellites into lower earth orbit to provide high-speed internet. The project is reportedly being called Project Kuiper which is similar to SpaceX’s Starlink.
The system is being developed in Redmond, the same place where Elon Musk’s SpaceX is conducting Starlink’s operations. Well, if you are thinking about Earth’s lower Earth orbit, it is pretty much going to be crowded up there with all satellites providing high-speed internet connectivity.
As mentioned in multiple reports, this is the first batch from Amazon that is going up into the lower earth orbit over the proposed network of over 3,000 satellites beaming high-speed internet over Earth to people from 366 miles above the Earth’s surface.
However, Amazon’s proposed internet speed is 400 Mbps to rural areas where internet connectivity is far too difficult. It is certainly true that Amazon is copying SpaceX in this project but the e-commerce giant is trying to make things better than Musk’s original plan with Starlink, for instance, providing better internet connectivity.
For your information, Starlink has already launched over 1,000 satellites into the lower Earth orbit already and Amazon’s 3,000 more would definitely make it crowded up there. Anyhow, Amazon also mentioned that in order to receive the best Amazon signals from its satellites, customers would require a special antenna for the same.
As mentioned in a report by Kuow.org, Amazon’s Project Kuiper is set to be a success in many parts of the world but there is definitely a risk of collision with other machines when it is in space. Amazon says that its thrusters will help the satellites to dodge other objects in space, be it other satellites or debris.
The report further mentions that the average life of a satellite is two years and post that it will push itself lower until they are out of fuel and then gradually sink into the atmosphere, burn and will probably be replaced with another one. However, according to the FCC reports and application, Amazon is sure that most of the satellite’s parts will burn up and never risk falling on the ground except for the reaction wheel rotor which could kill someone if it landed on them. Obviously, the e-commerce company said that the chances of this happening are 1 in 18,000 for each satellite, so this should not be a concern.