SpaceX Gets E-Band Radio Waves To Boost Starlink Broadband (spacenews.com) 26
Jason Rainbow reports via SpaceNews: SpaceX has secured conditional approval to use extremely high-frequency E-band radio waves to improve the capacity of its low Earth orbit Starlink broadband constellation. The Federal Communications Commission said March 8 it is allowing SpaceX to use E-band frequencies between second-generation Starlink satellites and gateways on the ground, alongside already approved spectrum in the Ka and Ku bands. Specifically, SpaceX is now also permitted to communicate between 71 and 76 gigahertz from space to Earth, and 81-86 GHz Earth-to-space, using the up to 7,500 Gen2 satellites SpaceX is allowed to deploy.
SpaceX has plans for 30,000 Gen2 satellites, on top of the 4,400 Gen1 satellites already authorized by the FCC. However, the FCC deferred action in December 2022 on whether to allow SpaceX to deploy the other three-quarters of its Gen2 constellation, which includes spacecraft closer to Earth to improve broadband speeds. The regulator also deferred action at the time on SpaceX's plans to use E-band frequencies, citing a need to first establish ground rules for using them in space. In a March 8 regulatory filing, the FCC said it found "SpaceX's proposed operations in the E-band present no new or increased frequency conflicts with other satellite operations." But the order comes with multiple conditions, including potentially forcing SpaceX to modify operations if another satellite operator also seeks to use the radio waves.
SpaceX has plans for 30,000 Gen2 satellites, on top of the 4,400 Gen1 satellites already authorized by the FCC. However, the FCC deferred action in December 2022 on whether to allow SpaceX to deploy the other three-quarters of its Gen2 constellation, which includes spacecraft closer to Earth to improve broadband speeds. The regulator also deferred action at the time on SpaceX's plans to use E-band frequencies, citing a need to first establish ground rules for using them in space. In a March 8 regulatory filing, the FCC said it found "SpaceX's proposed operations in the E-band present no new or increased frequency conflicts with other satellite operations." But the order comes with multiple conditions, including potentially forcing SpaceX to modify operations if another satellite operator also seeks to use the radio waves.
Can he get permissions world wide? (Score:5, Interesting)
Can they get permissions world wide? We can't usually agree on anything world-wide. What would happen when satellites are over a non-participating country? They just stop transmitting? Could they switch frequencies as they go over different countries?
I am not trying to make any point here, I am just curious on how this works...
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
FTFS: "SpaceX has secured conditional approval to use extremely high-frequency E-band radio waves to improve the capacity of its low Earth orbit Starlink broadband constellation"
You: "The satellites stay above the area they are covering all the time, they are in a geosynchronous orbit."
One of these things has to be wrong.
As it turns out, it's you. The selling point of Starlink is that it's in LEO, not GEO, so the RTT is short.
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That is true. However, the Starlink sats talk to each other, and therefore the operator can choose where to perform a downlink. It most probably follows that they will preferentially choose a downlink over the US, or wherever else they have a ground station and have approval.
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Nit yet that is the v1.5 and v2 sats. 1.5 have launched 2 is waiting on starship.
The first step of starship is basically replacing every single v 1 sat
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The satellites stay above the area they are covering all the time, they are in a geosynchronous orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Heu, StarLink? I don't think so... they are in low Earth orbit, kind of like the space station, even lower IIRC
Re:Can he get permissions world wide? (Score:4)
Anyone who's seen them train across the night sky can tell you that's not true.
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The satellites stay above the area they are covering all the time, they are in a geosynchronous orbit.
Err... no. The entire point of Starlink is that it's not in a high orbit like e.g. Hughes is because high orbit = high latency.
Re: Can he get permissions world wide? (Score:2)
No they donâ(TM)t - they are in ~300 mile low earth orbit. Thatâ(TM)s why it needs thousands of satellites. I imagine they stop broadcasting when over places they donâ(TM)t have agreements with though.
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REF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Orbital mechanics is an interesting field, especially when one wants to work out orbits that end up leaving the solar system (Think, the Voyager Satellites).
Re:Can he get permissions world wide? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. Coverage from when Starlink first launched says that SpaceX filed paperwork with the FCC and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is "a United Nations agency that, among other things, manages the global satellite radio-frequency spectrum" (source [space.com].
Satellite (Score:5, Interesting)
Getting frequency allocations for satellites is, generally, a lot easier than terrestrial broadcast as it's directional. You can have multiple satellites using the same frequencies and, as long as they aren't right next to each other in the sky, they won't step on each other.
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Good point about being directional!
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They would need a licence to use the spectrum over other countries. They have one for Europe and the UK, for example, although a couple of years back a French court invalidated one due to 5G interference.
In the case of Starlink, the ground transceiver would need to be licenced too. In fact even some receive only devices need a licence apparently, as the FCC had to give a wavier to GNSS receivers that could use the EU's Galileo system along side the GPS one.
They need to turn off when over unlicenced countrie
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They need to turn off when over unlicensed countries.
That would make sense.
Caveat: (Score:5, Informative)
E-band is very easily blocked, as water vapour absorption in this band is very high, and more temperature sensitive. So E-band can only be supplemental to other bands, but provides a significant boost when it's usable. On the upside, it's much more directional, so you can have a significantly smaller number of users sharing a given beam.
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E-band is very easily blocked, as water vapour absorption in this band is very high,
I wasn't aware radio waves could absorb water vapours. /s
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For an E-band signal at 80 GHz, temp 15C, pressure: 1013.25 hPa, relative humidity: 50%. Attenuation due to water vapor would be approximately 0.547 dB for a 1 km vertical path length.
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>"For an E-band signal at 80 GHz, temp 15C, pressure: 1013.25 hPa, relative humidity: 50%. Attenuation due to water vapor would be approximately 0.547 dB for a 1 km vertical path length."
They orbit at 550km above Earth. But the atmosphere is only something around 100km high but there is no exact height and it gets less dense the entire way up. So it isn't easy to compute the exact effects easily (although I am sure SpaceX know's what it is are doing). That said, it will still be a lot more attenuation
Cloud (Score:2)
>> relative humidity could easily be 100%
"cloud" it is called.
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(Don't yell at me for saying "genius," it's a movie plot)