Building a Space-Based ISP

# · 🔥 144 · 💬 55 · 2 years ago · stackoverflow.blog · dinosaurs · 📷
The software breaks down roughly into two parts: 1) software that flies and 2) software that supports the flying components, manages the networks, controls the Starlink satellite "Constellation"-the Starlink satellites in orbit-and maintains the communication between the constellation and the ordinary terrestrial internet. Current geostationary satellites orbit 26,200 miles from the center of the earth and 22,300 miles above the surface, meaning a signal takes roughly 0.240 seconds to make a round trip. Bohn, manager for the Network Software team, said, "We have a ground cluster of services figuring out who talks to whom in the network. What's interesting about our satellites is they are very close. Because of this, a satellite may only be overhead for a few minutes. The antenna on a customer's roof therefore needs to change which satellite it talks with often." The Earth-side network then provides continuous updates on traffic conditions and constellation changes, while each satellite updates the ground on its planned trajectory. The software is developed in a continuous integration environment, with teams merging into the master development branch often and deploying to the fleet of satellites in space each week. To make sure that hardware and software stay in sync throughout the process, software is sometimes tested on satellites coming off the production line and on their way to orbit. Releases are first deployed to a few satellites in orbit and tested in place.
Building a Space-Based ISP



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