Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Satellite earth station engineer view:

I'm interested in what the total system gain, EIRP and power looks like in an Astranis spot beam from geostationary, as compared to a current-generation 4000 to 6500 kilogram geostationary satellite with Ku and Ka band spot beams.

I am optimistic but also skeptical. The size and power of the satellite will influence what the size of VSAT terminals needs to be, and also the earth stations/major teleports. The example size of the satellite shown in the URL is so much smaller than current geostationary satellites that I don't see how the Tx power from each transponder will be anywhere near the power on a much bigger, costlier satellite.

Let's say for example I have put together from industry standard components, a 3.0 meter compact cassegrain Ku-band antenna in a remote part of Nepal, with a 40W BUC and a relatively recent Comtech EF Data modem. Are you planning on selling 1:1 dedicated capacity SCPC (and MCPC) type transponder kHz on a monthly basis? Or are you planning on standardizing on your own type of VSAT hardware terminal in bulk and selling contended access only?

Where do you see your value proposition for high capacity IP trunk links as compared to an ISP buying a 2 x 1.8m dish o3b terminal, and dedicated capacity through o3b? What will your $/Mbps rate look like compared to o3b with a monthly spend of 2500 or 3500 dollars?

Hey there, I think you got the gist of it in a different part of this thread (each of our spacecraft has a fraction of the number of transponders as a typical large GEO). But if you'd like to discuss further I'd be happy to chat offline. Do you have an email address or other way that I could contact you?

I understand you are probably at a very early stage of product design for the satellite capabilities, so you are cagey and don't want to make any definitive statements of technical specs... But I'd rather not move the discussion off forum into private email when the other people reading this thread could possibly benefit from answers to my specific questions.

I am kind of concerned that your answers to others' questions in this thread are vague and noncommittal.

One more question. Do you intend to:

(A) lease raw transponder kHz capacity to third party end users and ISPs (eg: the ku spot beams I can get on Russian satellites covering Afghanistan and a check for $4500 USD a month,

or (b) is your business plan to operate both the satellites and the earth stations, and resell fully packaged VSAT services directly to end users?

(C) Trust investors don't know enough physics to question the business plan.

See also: Theranos, uBeam, etc.

I just took a look at the currently frontpaged "Who's hiring" thread. Lots of software development, of course.

Hardware startups are costly and hard.

Now do it on super hard mode and build a thing that has to go 36,000+ km away, never to be seen or touched by a human, and make it super reliable.

We're lucky to work with a great group of investors-- the investors we work with at Andreessen Horowitz both have PhD's, one in CS, the other in EE. Our investor at Lux Capital has a PhD in RF engineering. Another of our investors has a PhD in particle physics. Couldn't ask for a more knowledgable, technically minded group.

Yes the plan is to lease bandwidth.

I'm always happy to answer basic questions about what we're doing. But questions around very specific technical details, especially when it comes to things that give us a competitive advantage like our antenna design, just aren't appropriate for a public forum. Thanks for understanding.

For more detailed questions we may or may not be able to answer them via email. But certainly I'd be happy to take a look at it and if its appropriate put them in touch with the relevant member of the team. (See-- https://www.astranis.com/about/)

Is your capacity steerable?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com