Silicon Updates: Amazon’s Project Kuiper for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation

What are Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites?

A Low Earth Orbit satellite is a geo-stationary satellite that flies at an altitude of 2000km from the earth’s surface. These LEO satellites are used for limited area coverage. When compared to that of the conventional geo-centric satellites, LEO satellites require very less amount of energy for placing the satellite into orbit. This, in turn, results in high bandwidth and low latency for communication.

What is satellite constellation?

A group of artificial satellites that work collectively is called satellite constellation. Usually, satellite constellations are formed with the LEO satellites, which are placed in sets of complementary orbital planes. Satellites of these constellations communicate to the earth by globally distributed radio stations.

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What is Project Kuiper?

Kuiper Systems LLC is one of the subsidiaries of Amazon, founded in 2019, with a huge investment of $10 billion. The primary objective of Kuiper Systems is to deploy a constellation of 3,263 LEO satellites for providing internet connectivity to the remote locations that cannot afford optical fiber connectivity. Amazon named this project as Project Kuiper.

The Kuiper Systems LLC and the Project Kuiper were named after the astronomical term Kuiper belt. Kuiper belt is defined as the circumstellar disc in outer solar system extending from the orbit of Neptune up to 50 AU (Astronomical Units) from the Sun.

Image source: Google

The approval for such astronomical communication projects is handled by Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Though Amazon has announced Project Kuiper in last spring, FCC took some time and approved it with a 5-0 votes. In the words of Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Amazon.. 

We have heard so many stories lately about people who are unable to do their job or complete schoolwork because they don’t have reliable internet at home. There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or where it doesn’t exist at all. Kuiper will change that. Our $10 billion investment will create jobs and infrastructure around the United States that will help us close this gap. We appreciate the FCC's unanimous, bipartisan support on this issue, and I want to thank Chairman Pai and the rest of the Commission for taking this important first step with us. We’re off to the races.

Amazon is also trying to partner with public and private firms to extend the outcome of Project Kuiper to the maximum possible. With Project Kuiper, Amazon is also planning to backhaul solutions for wireless carriers extending LTE and 5G service to new regions of USA. The development and the testing of Project Kuiper is planned to be carried out in the development facility opening in Redmond, Wash.

Research in the field of satellite constellations is gaining its popularity in recent times. Though Amazon has been approved for setting up satellite constellation recently, SpaceX by Elon Musk has been creating buzz over past few months. OneWeb satellite constellation has also planned to launch as many as 650 satellites initially to form their own satellite constellation.