OrbitalHub

Credits: MSCI

The COMMStellation satellites will orbit the Earth on polar orbits 1,000 km above the surface of the Earth. The satellites will be deployed in six orbital planes, thirteen operational satellites per plane, plus one for redundancy. The deployment will be cost efficient, only six launches being required to deploy the whole constellation.

As oppose to Iridium, which is accessible from portable devices, the COMMStellation will be connected to terrestrial telecommunication networks through twenty ground stations located around the Earth. The required ground stations are less expensive than those used for communication with satellites on medium Earth orbits and geostationary orbits.

MSCI claims it has perfected the construction of microsatellites and the use of commercial-grade components for development of microsatellites. These factors have led to low manufacturing costs and improved schedules.

An alternative to COMMStellation is proposed by O3b Networks, located in St. John, Jersey, Channel Islands. The O3b Networks constellation satellites will provide broadband connectivity within forty-five degrees latitude north and south of the equator. The constellation will consist of eight satellites at 8,000 km above the surface of the Earth. There are a number of advantages in using the low Earth orbit polar microsatellites, as MSCI is proposing, over using equatorial medium Earth orbit satellites: the polar orbits provide full coverage of the terrestrial surface and microsatellite technology has less cost and increased reliability associated with it.

It is also worth mentioning a previous attempt at creating a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide access to the Internet – Teledesic.

You can read more about COMMStellation on MSCI’s website.