That is very cool... I remember walking into an Iridium store back in the day trying to think of way to justify a purchase of one of the phones to tinker with (I couldn't come up with a rationale). Can't think of a pressing need for a RockBLOCK either, but it's a neat device.
Nice to see that the iridium fiasco has resulted in some long tail utility
Undoubtedly. But a handset will only operate where a cell signal is available; Iridium will operate anywhere on the planet, so long as you have line-of-sight to the sky.
Being an Iridium investor in the late 1990s was quite an experience. This was the dotcom boom, and Iridium looked like the next step in communications-- imagine being able to make a call or send data from anywhere in the world? Without the expense and cost of building out the cell network!
Shares in the company built in value with each launch as each launch put another major chunk of infrastructure in orbit.
This was totally different than those dotcom trifles like "Flooz" who you knew would just never amount to anything.
I still have my Iridium share certificate.
Alas, there was a bankruptcy, common holders were wiped out, and while it wasn't the total scam that GlobalStar and Global Crossing (The latter I consider to be a deliberate fraud much worse than Enron) it sure felt kinda shady.
I can say we're not in a stock bubble now in part because things like this are not going on the way they were.
Iridium was an expensive lesson for me. If only I'd put that money into Apple-- and the kicker-- I thought about it seriously.
That said, over the years, I've made a lot more from stock picking than I ever have from any index fund. It's not as hard as people make out, or as impossible... but you do learn lessons. And iridium was a lesson.
On some level, I'm glad it's still operational, though I think it's sad that so many years have passed and the network hasn't advanced significantly enough to give terrestrial carriers a run for their money.
Very high airtime costs. The system has great coverage, but low bandwidth. Also, the handset has to be able to see the sky. When Iridium was planned, it was expected that most mobile units would be vehicle-mounted, not handsets.
I was pretty excited about this when they were putting them up but of course I was just a kid so I didn't lose any money investing in them. :-)
I am excited to see that the Iridium NEXT [1] constellation is on the SpaceX launch manifests [2] not too far down the list. There are seven iridium flights in line. Hopefully this time they can find a bigger market and drive down costs.
What's also exciting about Iridium NEXT is they will have a hosted payload that will do global tracking of aircraft. Right now organizations like the FAA and NAV CANADA are very dependent on ground stations to track planes. Satellite tracking would be a big step forward: http://www.aireon.com/AboutAireon/AnIridiumInnovation
Inmarsat's constellation is not global (pole to pole) coverage. Iridium's value proposition here (with a subsidiary named Aireon) is global ADS-B coverage.
"In June 2010, Iridium signed the largest commercial rocket launch deal ever, a US$492 million contract with SpaceX to launch tens of Iridium NEXT satellites on multiple Falcon 9 launchers in 2015–2017 from Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3.[15]"
> It's not as hard as people make out, or as impossible... but you do learn lessons. And iridium was a lesson.
What was the lesson you learned from Iridium?
I am presuming you have something fairly broad, like "don't invest in companies with X type of business plan." As opposed to something narrow, like "Don't invest in Iridium."
Wow, I worked on the Iridium website back in early 2002 (via an agency, not for Iridium themselves) - the woman who was my contact there was one of the nicest clients I ever had to deal with.
Iridium turned out to be very useful. The U.S. Government put in money after the bankruptcy to keep it alive, in exchange for half of the airtime. After the US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, that turned out to be very useful.
The system has satellite-to-satellite links, and a call between two Iridium handsets doesn't go through ground stations. Back in 1999, the FBI was concerned that they wouldn't be able to wiretap Iridium calls. A capability for that was added. When the Government took a share in the system, network control was moved from Schaumburg, IL, to the Virginia suburbs near CIA HQ.
Iridium flares are a really neat night sky phenomenon to look for. The predictions can be found on satellite tracking sites [1]. I caught one by accident when I noticed a satellite passing overhead on my way to my car one night. Over the next few seconds it increased to dazzling brightness, and then it disappeared just as quickly. I couldn't believe my luck.
You are very lucky. I had a script scrape that site (not sure if I broke their TOS) and send me an SMS about 5-10 minutes before a visible pass of something bright including Iridium flares, but I found that even if you know the exact time and direction of where it will happen it is still easy to miss it. It's very nice to see one when you do. If the sky is dark you can often see the satellite before and after it goes bright, but I've seen one shine through a blue sky which must be perplexing to spot by accident by people who don't know about these.
I once saw one accidentally, when I was lying in a garden around 03:00 just watching stars. Checked at HeavensAbove afterwards to confirm I haven't just imagined it.
I used to do a lot of Iridium hunting in high school, sometimes waking up at 04:30 to spot the morning ones (which, given that I also stayed up/was waking up early sometimes to watch Shuttle launches/landings on NASA TV - in my timezones they were often in the middle of the night - pretty much ensured that I was often quite sleepy at school).
300 bytes per second. And you pay per minute of conection time rather than data amount.
In my mind The iridium network is cool, but a bit to outdated for anything other than phone conversations and stuff like remote sensors like Weather buoys.
I am looking at the near future when it comes to "consumer" satelite communication, there is some stuff there.
I remember tracking the flashes these satellites made in the sky. Was quite cool as a teenager to be able to predict a flash of light at a particular time in the night sky.
One of the coolest things about Iridium was that they demonstrated it was possible, today, to manufacture satellites in an assembly line fashion at enormous per satellite cost reductions. If orbital launch gets cheaper, which seems very likely, that will become highly relevant, and shows that we can take advantage of cheap access to space, even today.
When something "goes wrong" with one of these satellites and wipes out the latest CIA satellite etc or wipes out a pay tv satellite....who is liable and to what ends?
The cheaper it is to launch, the easier it is to clean up orbital debris. The risk from debris in orbit isn't from too many satellites, space is pretty damned empty, the risk comes from thousands upon thousands of fragments, some of them created intentionally. Moreover, as it gets cheaper to launch satellites it also becomes more and more possible to add extra weight to them, to put in backup systems which deorbit the satellites if they become inoperable.
46 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 104 ms ] threadNice to see that the iridium fiasco has resulted in some long tail utility
edit: here's a page with a proof of concept with an arduino hookup: http://makezine.com/projects/make-37/iridiumsatellite/
I think it'd be cheaper to build your own acoustic modem and glue it to a handset.
Shares in the company built in value with each launch as each launch put another major chunk of infrastructure in orbit.
This was totally different than those dotcom trifles like "Flooz" who you knew would just never amount to anything.
I still have my Iridium share certificate.
Alas, there was a bankruptcy, common holders were wiped out, and while it wasn't the total scam that GlobalStar and Global Crossing (The latter I consider to be a deliberate fraud much worse than Enron) it sure felt kinda shady.
I can say we're not in a stock bubble now in part because things like this are not going on the way they were.
Iridium was an expensive lesson for me. If only I'd put that money into Apple-- and the kicker-- I thought about it seriously.
That said, over the years, I've made a lot more from stock picking than I ever have from any index fund. It's not as hard as people make out, or as impossible... but you do learn lessons. And iridium was a lesson.
On some level, I'm glad it's still operational, though I think it's sad that so many years have passed and the network hasn't advanced significantly enough to give terrestrial carriers a run for their money.
https://www.iridium.com/ProductList.aspx?productCategoryID=1
I am excited to see that the Iridium NEXT [1] constellation is on the SpaceX launch manifests [2] not too far down the list. There are seven iridium flights in line. Hopefully this time they can find a bigger market and drive down costs.
[1] https://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumNEXT.aspx
[2] http://www.spacex.com/missions
"In June 2010, Iridium signed the largest commercial rocket launch deal ever, a US$492 million contract with SpaceX to launch tens of Iridium NEXT satellites on multiple Falcon 9 launchers in 2015–2017 from Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3.[15]"
What was the lesson you learned from Iridium?
I am presuming you have something fairly broad, like "don't invest in companies with X type of business plan." As opposed to something narrow, like "Don't invest in Iridium."
The system has satellite-to-satellite links, and a call between two Iridium handsets doesn't go through ground stations. Back in 1999, the FBI was concerned that they wouldn't be able to wiretap Iridium calls. A capability for that was added. When the Government took a share in the system, network control was moved from Schaumburg, IL, to the Virginia suburbs near CIA HQ.
I must have been preoccupied back in 2009, because this is the first I've heard of it.
EDIT: That video file plays wonky for me. Youtube has it as well: http://youtu.be/_o7EKlqCE20
[1] http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx
I had no idea that atmospheric drag had that great an effect at a 400km altitude.
I used to do a lot of Iridium hunting in high school, sometimes waking up at 04:30 to spot the morning ones (which, given that I also stayed up/was waking up early sometimes to watch Shuttle launches/landings on NASA TV - in my timezones they were often in the middle of the night - pretty much ensured that I was often quite sleepy at school).
In my mind The iridium network is cool, but a bit to outdated for anything other than phone conversations and stuff like remote sensors like Weather buoys.
I am looking at the near future when it comes to "consumer" satelite communication, there is some stuff there.
(you'll probably need to set your location)
1) Go to http://www.heavens-above.com/
2) Press "Change your observing location"
3) Choose the city and press "update" at the bottom
4) Press "Iridium Flares"
When something "goes wrong" with one of these satellites and wipes out the latest CIA satellite etc or wipes out a pay tv satellite....who is liable and to what ends?