communication
Amazon wants to replace internet satellites every seven years
Amazon is demonstrating prototypes of antennas for its planned service Kuiper for Internet coverage from space. photo
© Andrei Sokolow/dpa
Radiation, temperature fluctuations: technology in space has to withstand extreme conditions. This shortens their lifespan. That’s why Amazon wants to regularly replace its new Internet satellites.
On the one hand, the reason is the radiation to which the technology is exposed without protection. On the other hand, there are the constant extreme temperature fluctuations: Every 90 minutes, the satellites first alternately heat up under the sun’s rays and then cool down rapidly. “That’s not good for any electronics.” Amazon also sees the regular replacement of the relatively cheap satellites as an opportunity to improve the network with newer technologies. The disused satellites should burn up completely when they enter the atmosphere.
Amazon wants to supply the first test customers with Internet from space in the coming year. By 2026, half of the 3236 satellites should be in orbit. Among other things, Kuiper will compete with the already active similar service Starlink of the space company SpaceX from tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Amazon wants to provide remote areas with Internet
The cheapest versions of the receiving terminals for the signal from the Kuiper satellites should cost less than $400 thanks to the development of their own chips. Over time, the price will continue to drop, Kachroo said. Amazon sees the supply of areas in which it is not worth laying fiber optic cables as a business.
However, Kachroo was also convinced that the availability of the network would result in new usage scenarios “that we cannot even think of today”. For example, the war in the Ukraine changed the view of telecommunications. After the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, classic mobile phone services were quickly cut, but the Internet supply via Starlink continued to work. And such systems are also difficult to disable, emphasized Kachroo. “You would need 3000 killer satellites.”
The Amazon manager sees no danger that the new constellations of thousands of satellites will clog up space around the world. The satellites are tiny and thousands of kilometers apart, even if it looks like a dense network in the pictures. “People often don’t realize how big the earth and everything around it is. There’s a lot of space in space.”