[109756] in Cypherpunks
Re: LEO Satellites
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ryan Lackey)
Sat Apr 3 13:03:25 1999
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 13:47:58 -0400
From: Ryan Lackey <ryan@venona.com>
To: cypherpunks@algebra.com
Cc: shamrock@netcom.com
Reply-To: Ryan Lackey <ryan@venona.com>
Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com> said:
> Can anybody here point me to a comparison of Iridium, Globalstar, and
> Teldesic [sic]? My interest in LEO satellites is on the increase.
A friend of mine at MIT did her SM thesis on comparing satellite systems
using the "t1-minute" metric. She's trying to get permission from her
advisor to post it. I will continue bugging her about it. I have
bcc'd her on this mail in an attempt to motivate :)
There is also some group in the UK (at University of Surrey, Surrey
Space Centre" ) which did
satellite constellation mapping programs and comparisons. Check out
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/SSC/
My own memory is:
Iridium:
$2/minute voice, exists now
No data gateway online as of yet, 2400 bps when it happens (through weirdness
it might be possible to do 4800 or 9600bps)
ORBCOMM
$0.01/character (yes, I want some of that crack too)
tiny tx/rx units
available nowish
Teledesic
$800/month for global roming t1
pie-in-the-sky plan by Microsoft...it's just FUD IMO to screw everyone else
Inmarsat
GEO, so not meeting your criteria, but has been here for a long time,
doesn't suck, is still expensive, has a bunch of options, but annoying
latency
Globalstar
Will offer 9600bps data, isn't here yet, should be similar to Iridium
I also find several of them scary as they require tracking user-stations
on the ground for incoming transmissions. I'd prefer something like
a global pager, which broadcasts on all transmitters brief encrypted
pages, but that would get *expensive*. Being able to localize someone
to an Iridium cell or subcell would be...useful to the wrong people.
Cheers,
Ryan
--
ryan@venona.com
http://www.venona.com/rdl/
1024D/4096g 0xD2E0301F B8B8 3D95 F940 9760 C64B DE90 07AD BE07 D2E0 301F
