With SpaceX recent announcement of a huge satellite network in low earth orbit, I was wondering if such a network would motivate a sustainable large-scale launch capacity, i.e. a increase of scale of production and usage of launchers.
Obviously, one needs quite a lot of rockets to put 4k satellites into orbit, but for how long?
- Is further miniaturization of these ku-band communication satellites possible, or do factors like frequency (antennas) or power supply limit this?
- Is there any reliable estimate about the number of launches needed to maintain the network?
- Is the high number of satellites a necessity (i.e. motivated by the geometry of the network) or might it be overcome by a later generation of satellites?
