As momentum builds towards the 2012 launch of JUPITER™, Hughes’ next-generation Ka-band satellite, it’s time to take a closer look at what’s inside this gamechanging bird that’s designed with over 100 Gbps capacity and will serve from 1.5 to 2 million HughesNet® subscribers in North America.
Q. What are some of the parts inside JUPITER?
A. JUPITER contains over 6,000 components, including amplifiers, filters, down converters, up converters, power supplies, batteries, temperature sensors, and heaters.
Q. How many screws are in the satellite?
A. Over 50,000.
Q. What are some of its key payload characteristics?
A. JUPITER will have 60 user beams, each with 750 MHz of bandwidth, and 15 gateway beams to supply all that data. Built on a very powerful Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform, the satellite will have 15 kW DC power and more than 15 years of orbital life expectancy.
Q. How much waveguide will JUPITER use?
A. The satellite will utilize 4,500 pieces of pipe, known as waveguide, which put together end to end would extend to over a mile long.
Q. What is new about the satellite’s terminal and gateway technology?
A. JUPITER’s state-of-the-art technology will enable a significant increase in throughput performance at a lower cost.
Q. What makes Jupiter such a heavy hitter in the satellite broadband world?
A. Jupiter’s capacity of over 100 Gbps in the Ka-band is equal to approximately 80 Ku-band satellites, and will more than double the number of HughesNet subscribers in North America, which at over 620,000 represents the world’s largest consumer satellite Internet service. More than 70 percent are served by the Hughes award-winning, Ka-band SPACEWAY® 3 satellite, the world’s first with on-board switching, making it the #1 Ka-band service network of any kind globally.
Stay tuned for more interesting facts about JUPITER in the next issue of Channels—as we get closer to countdown in 2012!
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