UK government possibly investing in LEO technology company OneWeb.

[Coshy91]

UK government is possiblyooking to invest in a LEO company called OneWeb which is a UK company based in the USA as part of the deal however the company would be required to move its manufacturing back to the UK and its headquarters too. Other companies are looking into bidding for the company including Amazon. OneWeb already has some Satellites in orbit but recently filed for bankruptcy in the USA due to Covid19 but has already invested more than £3billion into the company.

 

I think it's a good idea by the British company personally.

 

 

Quote

 The UK Government will reportedly invest around £500m (equity) into British-registered space company OneWeb as part of a wider private-sector consortium bid. The firm has been busy building a global network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for ultrafast broadband, but as part of the deal it may have to deliver GPS too.

 

 

Link to the article: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/06/government-to-splash-500m-on-oneweb-broadband-satellites.html

[mr moose]

If it prevents private companies from rooting consumers with internet options that really aren't suitable but tick the boxes so they don't have to  upgrade local infrastructure then it is a good move.  It also keeps jobs in the UK and gives the economy a little boost.

[ThePointblank]

Seriously, this is a big WTF.

 

The British government isn't investing in OneWeb for telecommunications; they are doing it as a replacement for the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system.

 

The technologies involved are fundamentally wrong for use as a satellite navigation system. OneWeb is working on basically the same idea as Elon Musk’s Starlink: a mega-constellation of satellites in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) which are used to connect people on the ground to the internet. A satellite navigation system, such as GPS, Galileo, GLOSNASS, or BeiDou are MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or even geostationary orbits.

 

It's clear that lobbyists at OneWeb have convinced the government that they can completely redesign some of the satellites to piggyback a navigation payload on it.

 

They are bolting an unproven technology on to a mega-constellation that’s designed to do something else. It’s a tech and business gamble, and IMHO, it's going to fail, and fail spectacularly.

[Coshy91]

19 hours ago, ThePointblank said:

Seriously, this is a big WTF.

 

The British government isn't investing in OneWeb for telecommunications; they are doing it as a replacement for the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system.

 

The technologies involved are fundamentally wrong for use as a satellite navigation system. OneWeb is working on basically the same idea as Elon Musk’s Starlink: a mega-constellation of satellites in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) which are used to connect people on the ground to the internet. A satellite navigation system, such as GPS, Galileo, GLOSNASS, or BeiDou are MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or even geostationary orbits.

 

It's clear that lobbyists at OneWeb have convinced the government that they can completely redesign some of the satellites to piggyback a navigation payload on it.

 

They are bolting an unproven technology on to a mega-constellation that’s designed to do something else. It’s a tech and business gamble, and IMHO, it's going to fail, and fail 

it's most likely going to be used to supplement gps or have a GPS type tech added to it as the UK is one of 3 major country's invested in Galileo from a developing technology side and investment plus i believe one of the biggest satellite manufacturing country's in the world so have the know how on it all.

[ThePointblank]

2 hours ago, Coshy91 said:

it's most likely going to be used to supplement gps or have a GPS type tech added to it as the UK is one of 3 major country's invested in Galileo from a developing technology side and investment plus i believe one of the biggest satellite manufacturing country's in the world so have the know how on it all.

Actually four issues:
 

1. The UK is no longer involved in Galileo because of Brexit. Part of the failure to properly negotiate the exit is the reason behind this.

 

2. A super-constellation of LEO satellites is the absolutely wrong technology to be using for a GPS analogue system. Every single GPS-type system in existance uses MEO or geostationary orbit satellites. The reason is that they can more easily cover more of the world with less satellites, and they can do with higher precision from the higher orbit as they would have far less potential interference from the earth’s atmosphere.

 

3. GPS type satellites are huge, and for a good reason; if you want high precision, encrypted, secure geolocation capabilities, a satellite the size of what's being used by OneWeb is far too small to cram in all of the gear necessary. These things have atomic clocks built in them to permit high accuracy, and atomic clocks are not small things.

 

4. Also, OneWeb is a British company in name only. Their mailing address, head office and business registration papers are in the UK, but most of their assets and facilities are overseas in the US. That's why when they filed for bankruptcy, they filed in an American court, not a British one.

[HenrySalayne]

 

[Sakkura]

Yeah this is just another example of tory corruption, just like the ferry deal with the company that had never owned a ship. Which they then had to replace with a Danish and a French company - so much for Brexit independence. 

[Drama Lama]

I think they are investing in a sinking ship

[Bombastinator]

An issue of one web is unlike the other competing systems they don’t have launch capacity.  I think that’s why they were in the US.  There’s a lot of launch going on in the US and they could piggy back off stuff.  If britian has launch capacity it could work.  They’re going to need it though. Russia has launch capacity, China has launch capacity, I don’t know whether India does or not. 

[Sakkura]

10 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

I think they are investing in a sinking ship

They are investing in a sinking container ship because they want a yacht.

[Techstorm970]

8 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

I think they are investing in a sinking ship

[ThePointblank]

10 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

An issue of one web is unlike the other competing systems they don’t have launch capacity.  I think that’s why they were in the US.  There’s a lot of launch going on in the US and they could piggy back off stuff.  If britian has launch capacity it could work.  They’re going to need it though. Russia has launch capacity, China has launch capacity, I don’t know whether India does or not. 

OneWeb is using Airbus-designed and built satellites, launched from Russian Soyuz rockets, launching from French Guyana and from various Russian spaceports.

 

They were going to get screwed against companies like SpaceX; their partnership with Airbus isn't cheap, and neither are launches with Russian rockets.

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, ThePointblank said:

OneWeb is using Airbus-designed and built satellites, launched from Russian Soyuz rockets, launching from French Guyana and from various Russian spaceports.

 

They were going to get screwed against companies like SpaceX; their partnership with Airbus isn't cheap, and neither are launches with Russian rockets.

Launches aren’t cheap period. I can see the Russians soaking a british company though and spaceX is literally a competitor.  So French Guyana and nothing else then.  Can they do enough launches?

 

I could see them actually becoming a Russian company to get launches

[ThePointblank]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Launches aren’t cheap period. I can see the Russians soaking a british company though and spaceX is literally a competitor.  So French Guyana and nothing else then.  Can they do enough launches?

They were partnered with Airbus Defence and Space, which are not known for being a cheap satellite designer and manufacturer.

 

They were also intending to use Virgin Galactic for a small number of launches, using Virgin's LauncherOne small sat launcher, and had the option to use Airbus' Ariane 6 launcher as well.

 

Considering their cost structure, it was no surprise that OneWeb ran into financial difficulties so quickly; they got a high cost structure compared to someone like SpaceX, and didn't have the financial capital like some of their competitors, like Amazon.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, ThePointblank said:

They were partnered with Airbus Defence and Space, which are not known for being a cheap satellite designer and manufacturer.

 

They were also intending to use Virgin Galactic for a small number of launches, using Virgin's LauncherOne small sat launcher, and had the option to use Airbus' Ariane 6 launcher as well.

 

Considering their cost structure, it was no surprise that OneWeb ran into financial difficulties so quickly; they got a high cost structure compared to someone like SpaceX, and didn't have the financial capital like some of their competitors, like Amazon.

Poorly designed and underfunded.  That will get any company.  Didn’t help that spaceX took NASA away and virgin galactic couldn’t get its shit together I suppose.  It would be nice to not have a monopoly on satalite internet though.