The organization fails to say what's in it for anyone who would donate. It sounds like it's a purely philanthropic project.
Philanthropy is a noble cause, but if that's their intent, perhaps they should be more clear about their road map.
For example, what happens if they raise the seed financing of $150,000 to get started, but another bidder buys the satellite while they're ramping up? What happens to the money raised?
How will donors be able to track the success of the project in the short term and long term? Will donors have a voice in the decision-making process when it comes time to put the satellite into use?
The t-shirts are cool and all that, but they need to establish some credibility and publish a detailed plan.
Of the many activities in life for which prior experience are essential for success: buying assets out of bankruptcy; re-tasking a communications satellite...
So, I perused the bios, and I'm just really not convinced that they could pull it off. Looks like a bunch of smart and really well meaning (young) people. Needs more billionaire greybeard.
Mark Shuttleworth would be a good choice in my mind. Rich, with connections to more money. Experience in space so he understands the issues and has connections to the right kind of people to manage the technical side. Plus he's an African with an interest in philanthropy. Then again, for huge amount of money there are other ways to get lots of people connected. But being able to casually mention your communications satellite in conversation also has an allure..
While the concept is a noble one several questions come to mind...
They're going to build a network around a single satellite with no backup or (it appears) budget to build / launch a new one?
How do they intend to move this satellite? I know they talked to the owners and they say it's possible but I'd be curious to know the cost of the project. I am not an orbital mechanics engineer but it from my limited knowledge satellites only have enough fuel for minor course adjustments over their lifetime. Even if you could use much of it to completely reposition that would foreshorten the useful life of the satellite? And as of a few months from now the only current orbital recapture system (the shuttle) is being mothballed.
Just my initial quick thoughts. Sometimes great things come from seemingly grandiose plans though.
It is possible to move a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, and done in practice.
They will move the satellite by firing the East/West stationkeeping thrusters. Geosynchronous satellites, like the terrestar 1, need to periodically adjust their orbit to stay in their assigned slot. Aside from electronics failures, the operational life of a satellite is determined by how much fuel they carry, and how often stationkeeping is needed.
These kinds of moves are done currently. For example, the GOES constellation operated by NOAA has a backup satellite on-orbit ready to be moved to replace a failed satellite. It costs extra fuel from the limited onboard tank. In the case of GOES they plan for this fuel use. For Terrestar, it would shorten the 15 year lifespan some.
Aside from the satellite itself, it seems this project is dependent on a "low cost open source modem", design and details TBD.
They reference a $12 Indian laptop, which has already been mostly proven to be an unrealistic pipe-dream. The $12 cost is the cost to the end-user after a government subsidy. Not realistic or scalable in terms of building a business dependent on this device.
No mention of the ISP on the other end of this satellite that is providing the free access (vague mention of reselling high-speed access through other ISP's).
I'm not familiar with how much bandwidth a single satellite can handle, but it can't be more than a couple of Gb/s, especially for an older unit. They are talking about a footprint of 6-249M people. Even on the low-end, this doesn't seem like it's going to provide a super-usable connection.
This is a noble project, and I wish them luck, but remain highly skeptical that the idea was formed in conjunction with beers, bongs, or both.
Maybe I am a little bit ignorant but I suspect that the problem is that most of the people in Africa don't have computers (or other devices to use the Internet). Even more, I believe that solving hunger or HIV issues is a little bit more important for people living in poor countries.
I guess it's like the OLPC thingy .. while I agree everyone should have access to a computer and the world of information .. clean water, basic drugs and a society that allows free expression is way more important. Anything else just distracts from those basic rights (as I see it anyhow).
I'm skeptical of this project's chances for success, but to be fair, the issue of access to computers is at least addressed (albeit in passing).
You're right, hunger and HIV are also important issues - not to mention access to clean water. That doesn't mean that only one problem at a time can be addressed.
A satellite alone is just a dumb amplifier. If you want to share bandwidth and access, you'll need a lot of ground equipments to operate the access-layer (e.g. relying on DVB-RCS).
The project is not talking about the Telemetry Tracking and Control (TT&C) of the satellite. TerreStar-1 is a GEO satellite and you'll need to make regular manoeuvrings to keep the footprint stable too. Operating a satellite is costly and require a 24/7 staff... I don't really think that the project is realistic with such level of funding.
How much Wifi setup could you do with even $150K , which is the cost of just getting started (1st stage) with this satellite setup?
Figure a very tall tower for $50K, then smaller 75 foot guyed towers at $5k each. Decent Wifi-band outdoor equipment is less than $1k per end including all wiring. Add a small generator and battery backup (even solar panels) at each location - you are talking far less than 300W (0.3kW) needed to run each tower.
So if you found a number of towns/cities you could serve, you could place the tall tower in the center with the small towers at each town. Now all you need is some form of Internet at the big tower to feed everyone else.
For example, what happens if they raise the seed financing of $150,000 to get started, but another bidder buys the satellite while they're ramping up? What happens to the money raised?
How will donors be able to track the success of the project in the short term and long term? Will donors have a voice in the decision-making process when it comes time to put the satellite into use?
The t-shirts are cool and all that, but they need to establish some credibility and publish a detailed plan.