Japan launches high speed internet satellite

[Ponmayilal]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080223...aspaceinternet

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan successfully launched Saturday an experimental satellite aimed at providing high-speed Internet access across Asia, even when terrestrial infrastructure goes down, the space agency said.
The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the Kizuna satellite was launched at 17:55 pm (0855 GMT) with no glitches from the Space Centre on Tanegashima island off the southern tip of Kyushu Island, southern Japan.
The communications satellite, expected to be in use for five years, separated from the rocket approximately 35 minutes after the launch, said an official of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) during a live broadcast.
The 342 million dollar-Kizuna will allow super-high speed data communications of up to 1.2 Gbps, which would make it the fastest in the world, the agency said.
That rate would translate to 150 times that of the average high-speed ADSL connection rate of 8 Mbps, or 12 times the speed of a fibre-optic communication delivery to a person's premises (FTTP).
The "Kizuna," which also means "bond" in Japanese, is expected to begin transmitting and receiving data with terrestrial infrastructures in July after completing preparations and confirming the satellite's safety.
Japan is looking to use the satellite to allow communication when a ground-based network is severed by a disaster in any Asian country, in which case it would be used to transmit data to crisis management offices.
The agency is hoping it can also be used as an educational or medical tool to reach people in remote or mountainous areas.
"The Internet is now an integral part of our lives; but its infrastructure levels vary. Urban areas ... have a better environment, whereas some mountainous regions and remote islands are not well-equipped," JAXA said on its website.
The satellite will enable students in Asian countries to communicate smoothly and with no time lag among one another, as if they were in the same classroom, it said.
The satellite will to last five years, an agency spokeswoman said.
The launch was delayed by one week after JAXA said it had discovered a problem with the gas jet thruster for its launch rocket.
Japan, like developing Asian powers China and India, has been stepping up its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.
Japan faced an embarrassing failure in November 2003, when it had to destroy a rocket carrying a spy satellite 10 minutes after lift-off because a booster failed to separate.
However, Japan's first lunar probe, Kaguya, was successfully launched last September, releasing two baby satellites which will be used to study the gravity fields of the moon among other projects.
The 55-billion-yen (500-million-dollar) lunar probe is the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo in the 1960s and 1970s.

[Gigacore]

1.2 Gbps

[nvidia]

Cool! No more undersea cable cuts i guess...

[Cyrus_the_virus]

Originally Posted by nvidia

Cool! No more undersea cable cuts i guess...

Nope, but it's just made the job easier for US, if they want to attack asia, all they do now is shoot down the satellite and communication links are broken. 1st step to paralysing a nation.

[nvidia]

^^Lolz..
I guess the cables were a lot better

[Gigacore]

cables will still be a backup

[nvidia]

^^What if someone cuts them also? Like a sea monster?

[shashank_re]

I hope there is no BSNL type operator in Japan,if it is then 1.2Gbps with 1GB limit with 2-8 free!

[Gigacore]

@nvideo

People will relay on telephone on data

edit: no data

[pushkaraj]

does this mean reduced broadband charges all over asia?

[Ponmayilal]

Here is some additional bits regarding the high-speed internet satellite from http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-16/0802233921200442.htm

"About 100 experiments will be conducted through the satellite, including a test broadcast of the next generation of high-definition television.
Japan has yet to join the lucrative international satellite market, and Kizuna -- which should be in operation for five years -- is not intended for commercial use."

What one can perhaps expect as a fall-out of this experimental satellite is a flurry of commercial satellites for high speed internet and beaming of HDTV and perhaps we may be fortunate enough to view HDTV sooner than later through such satellites rather than the traditional terrestrial broadcasts.

[crazyforever]

1.5 Gbps - whoa !!!
a movie downloaded in 4 secs.
Welcome the High Definition era

[W i d e S c r e e N]

offtopic

@Gigacore,

cool avatar, u made that urself?

[upendra_gp]

Originally Posted by shashank_re

I hope there is no BSNL type operator in Japan,if it is then 1.2Gbps with 1GB limit with 2-8 free!

LOL !

[nvidia]

Originally Posted by crazyforever

1.5 Gbps - whoa !!!
a movie downloaded in 4 secs.
Welcome the High Definition era

This doesnt mean we can get that speeds... The satellite has that transfer speeds...

[ax3]

cool ..... thats real upgrading .....

[cool_techie_tvm]

I wonder when our nation will be doing something similar...

[pushkaraj]

Originally Posted by cool_techie_tvm

I wonder when our nation will be doing something similar...

^^ Ummeed pe duniya kaayam hai

[Ponmayilal]

India has a proven capability of building communication satellites as evidenced by the many INSATs.

With a bit of reorientation and adequate funding from the Govt., our scientists can definitely build a similar satellite and put it into orbit and they are no lesser mortals.

The key here will be adequate funding.The Govt. may have its own priorities and perhaps it will cost less to use other satellites on lease than building our own till such time we can afford to spend on it.

[fun2sh]

great!! really japan is a great country contradictory to its tiny-winy size!!!

[NIGHTMARE]

its gr8 BSNL walo "Best Hai Mere Liye" jago

[naveen_reloaded]

will it be reliable ???
today the mostcommon thing we use with satelite direct link is DTH service like dishtv/tata sky etc... and they ahve a major problem... the CLOUDS... sun... etc...

i dont know how this thing work.. but wht i am saying is if this is very similarto DTH .. then we have problem here...

[Cyrus_the_virus]

Originally Posted by naveen_reloaded

will it be reliable ???
today the mostcommon thing we use with satelite direct link is DTH service like dishtv/tata sky etc... and they ahve a major problem... the CLOUDS... sun... etc...

i dont know how this thing work.. but wht i am saying is if this is very similarto DTH .. then we have problem here...

Are yaar, the customer is not going to have a base station like a DTH. The satellite is going to link centers and those centers are going to provide connections to your home via cable.

The base staions that are used for DTH use very little power and hence a small dish and hence really bad weather can cause disruption. The main stations that are going to recieve these signals from the satellite are going to have bigger and more powerful base stations. And then will distribute that to end users.

The internet still doesn't have safe encryption methods to control unauthorised access to satellite communication, hence it's going to take a lot more time before everyone gets access to the internet at their homes via satellites!! Till then larger base stations will have access to the satellites and they will distribute it via authorization controlled channels like cable.

[naveen_reloaded]

thnks .. i thought its a straight link...

thnks again..

Welcome to the Future HD Era OF Japan......
Soon India will be welcomming 32MBps ADSL connection while japan will be with 8Gbps wireless satelte connection....................

[naveen_reloaded]

^^^ only in dreamzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....