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Plans for Global Union Against Radiation Deployment from Space (GUARDS)
Dear Members and Friends, August 19,20l5
In my last newsletter, dated November l5, 2014, I wrote about plans to put Wi-Fi everywhere. Those who responded, asking "How can I help?” are now the core of a new organization called GUARDS. It stands for Global Union Against Radiation Deployment from Space. Its members live in Canada, the U.S., Italy, the U.K., Norway, France, Greece, and Australia.
The danger is greater and closer at hand than we thought. There will be not just hundreds, but thousands of satellites. Billions of dollars have already been invested. And the sheer numbers of planned rocket launches threaten to contribute to global warming and ozone depletion.
GUARDS
The (so far) eight companies seeking to rain high-speed Internet on
every square inch of the world before 2020 are:
- SpaceX: 4,OOO satellites, altitude 750 miles.Testing to begin in 2016.
- OneWeb: 2,400satellites (648 satellites initially),altitude 500-590 miles. target start-up date, 2018-2019.
- Facebook: Satellites, drones and lasers
- Google: 200,000(?) high altitude balloons (at 62,500 feet)(“Project Loon")
- Samsung: 4,600 satellites, altitude 930 miles
- Iridium Next: 66 satellites, altitude 483 miles. Iridium's satellite hotspot, called 'Iridium GO," providing slow speeds, has been available for purchase since January 2014. Launching of the "next generation" (higher speed) to satellites is scheduled begin in October 2015 and to be completed by 2017.
- Globalstar: 24 satellites, altitude 880 miles. Also slow speed, and also already in operation. As an incentive to buy its “Sat-Fi" access points, Globalstar is offering free satellite phones until September 30,20l5
- Outernet: 200 nanosatellites (4-inch cubes), altitude 560 miles Target start-up date, 2019.
The name of the game is competition. The stakes are high, and there is plenty of money to be made. Four and one half billion human beings are not yet in on social media. We may well face several large fleets of satellites providing high speed wireless Internet to penguins.
Virgin Galactic and Qualcom have invested in OneWeb's project. Honeywell International has already signed a memorandum of understanding to become OneWeb's first large customer. It plans to provide WiFi on business, commercial, and military aircraft throughout the world. At right is a press image from OneWeb's website.
Google is pouring money into every potential method of providing global wireless Internet. In addition to Project Loon, which would provide Wi-Fi from balloons, Google bought Titan Aerospace, which makes high-altitude drones, in April 2014. Google is also investing heavily in Elon Musk's SpaceX project. Google and Fidelity Investments together have sunk one billion dollars in Musk's scheme to Wi-Fi the Earth and Mars.Yes,Mars. South African born billionaire Musk hopes to plant a colony on the red planet within ten years, and intends to provide high speed Internet to both planets.
Samsung officially joined the fray last week, providing more details than any of its
competitors. The just-published article titled ”Mobile lnternet from the Heavens" by Sarnsung engineer Farooq Khan reveals a plan to put 4,600 satellites into orbit at an altitude of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), and transmitting at a frequency of 56 GHz. The antenna details are frightening. Each satellite will have phased array antennas with 1,024 elements, an actual power of5l2 watts, and an effective radiated power of one hundred million watts.
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