Space as a Service

http://www.judegomila.com/2012/11/space-as-service.html

by judegomila • 14 years ago

92 24 14 years ago

ekianjo• 14 years ago

Fascinating stuff, maybe not too far away. I wonder, however, what is the advantage of OffGlobe (providing a data center on the moon). You get extra latency and maybe reliability issues. Or maybe the advantage is to be off local jurisdictions and safe from FBI operations ?

jacques_chester2• 14 years ago

You'd be safe from seizure of the actual SSDs, which sounds nice.

Until the FBI obtains a court order granting them root access to the OffGlobe C&C infrastructure. Oops.

Or until the FBI obtains a court order freezing OffGlobe's bank accounts until they suspend a particular user. Oops.

And so on.

Sovereign risk is difficult to cope with because the Crown or the People always have multiple ways to obtain compliance. This is as it should be, but it does mean that in riskier fields you need continuity plans that go beyond the merely physical.

brianbreslin3• 14 years ago

Do you remember Sealand? Offshore datacenter on an independent "principality" off UK coast?

viggity• 14 years ago

the Moon is 400,000km from the Earth and the speed of light is 300,000km/s. So, about 1.3 seconds, but since you need to send a command and get it back, you're looking at 2.6 seconds before you start receiving your data back.

toomuchtodo• 14 years ago

UDP all the things (in space)

eshvk• 14 years ago

What stops an American or Chinese military vessel from blowing up so called data center if it is known that it has been used in conducting activities inimical to the interests of these organizations?

Hyperbole aside, my point is that I am not convinced that the whole keep data safe from the arm of the law business model is sustainable. If they want to find you, they will find you.

consultutah• 14 years ago

As I read these, my first thought was that I don't think big enough.

brianbreslin3• 14 years ago

Agree (i thought the same thing about myself). Big ideas for a big space are hard to come by.

maaku3• 14 years ago

Nonsense; there's plenty of ideas. Just attend the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace conference to see, or pick up any O'Neill-inspired hard sci-fi and have a read.

What's missing is execution. Why do we all have a man-crush on Elon Musk? Because for the past 30 years it's been the same pool of a dozen-odd failed entrepreneurs suckering the next batch of investors to losing money on The Next Variation Of The Same Old Idea That Will Really Make You Money This Time, I Promise. Now SpaceX is actually pulling it off, and all it took was a little execution. Kistler? Bell? Rotary rocket? They all tried the same business model. What they lacked was the business know-how and straight-forward execution to make it happen and get in the black.

I encourage every entrepreneur here with real world experience to give the space sector a serious look. We could use your experience.

Remember, the first trillionaire will be made in space.

sethbannon• 14 years ago

Another for the Data category: Silvia Terra (http://www.silviaterra.com/). They count trees from space.

brianbreslin3• 14 years ago

Wonder what other industries need large scale inventory done like this from effectively image recognition?

pclark• 14 years ago

Why is this useful? I'm asking because I am a tree counting noob, vs. trying to be a dick

noonespecial• 14 years ago

I don't have any expertise either but here's a conjecture:

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay... I want to buy 1000 Acres of pristine forestland and then spend 8 years wrangling with the government for the right to log it. So how much wood could I cut if I could cut wood?

waterlesscloud• 14 years ago

Real estate transactions involving logging rights?

Forestry Service studies too, I'm sure.

akavi• 14 years ago

If I remember correctly (One of the founders is an acquaintance), logging companies frequently have large parcels of land of varying quality, size, and even contiguity. Being able to cheaply determine the the composition of the trees on these disparate parcels better allows them to determine which areas would be most lucrative to develop logging operations (an enormous capital investment) in, which is incredibly valuable.

cashe• 14 years ago

Space Burial: http://elysiumspaceflights.com/

noirman• 14 years ago

now that's something new!

TelmoMenezes• 14 years ago

"X as a service" is HN's equivalent to the old "imagine a beowulf cluster of these" Slashdot meme.

alexyoung• 14 years ago

I miss those days.

TuringTest• 14 years ago

You should check out "...in space!" at TV Tropes. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RecycledINSPACE)

trendspotter• 14 years ago

This overview about 'space as a service' is good, but it should specifically mention X Prize founder and Singularity University co-founder and now Planetary Resources co-founder "Peter Diamandis" as somebody of interest in this industry.

Space as a Service

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