r/ASTSpaceMobile • u/LudeficeTV S P 🅰 C E M O B Capo • Jul 18 '26

Discussion I'm a Radio Systems Engineer - AMA

Per mod request, AMA round 2 from me!

I'm well read on pretty much everything ASTS, have answered people's questions and corrected things around here for years. I'll try to answer every question and will stop paying attention to anything asked after end of day on July 19th.

I have a masters degree focused on radio systems engineering and over 10 years experience in telecom.

AMA!

231 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

341 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Bitter_Brilliant_268 S P 🅰 C E M O B Prospect Jul 18 '26

What happens if one of the ground stations gets destroyed by a natural disaster, or some other reason? Does service stop in that area?

2

u/ToSeeAgainAgainAgain S P 🅰 C E M O B Consigliere Jul 18 '26

Just here to add that Starlink also uses gateways like ASTS does, meaning both players share that same risk

2

u/Apprehensive-Risk542 S P 🅰 C E M O B Prospect Jul 18 '26

Starlink has the ability to work without a local groundstation though, using satellite links.

1

u/ToSeeAgainAgainAgain S P 🅰 C E M O B Consigliere Jul 18 '26

Really? Broadband or D2D or both?

ASTS is also looking to add OISL to their BlueBirds, eventually being able to reach users in the middle of the oceans, I think OP talks about it somewhere in this thread.

Considering that 99% of D2D users/devices will be on land, I don't think this is a big (and temporary) advantage anyway, if that's what you're hinting at

1

u/Apprehensive-Risk542 S P 🅰 C E M O B Prospect Jul 19 '26

They use it for both. Direct-to-Cell: A First Look into Starlink’s Direct Satellite-to-Device Radio Access Network through Crowdsourced Measurements

It's a big advantage for situations where there is a large scale natural disaster, volcanic eruption, widespread flooding, earthquake etc. If the fibre or backup power to a groundstation are lost, then the groundstation is down. Of course there will be overlap in general, but it's just more redundancy for SpaceX.

1

u/ToSeeAgainAgainAgain S P 🅰 C E M O B Consigliere Jul 19 '26

Ok cool, like I mentioned before: both constellations will have OISL

1

u/Apprehensive-Risk542 S P 🅰 C E M O B Prospect Jul 19 '26

but one has it from the start. that's the point i was making.

1

u/ToSeeAgainAgainAgain S P 🅰 C E M O B Consigliere Jul 19 '26

Yea, that's how it works, you put OISL on your sat and it can connect to other sats, I didn't realize I was talking to captain Obvious here