This is the third of four articles to suggest solutions to the problems that would be caused on Earth from the loss of satellite services. I briefly describe the situation in a previous posting at Impending Space Junk Disaster. This article discusses the use of terrestrial microwave to provide connectivity to replace that which is currently provided by space based platforms.
Telecommunications is the only service that can be backfilled upon loss of satellite services. Space based imaging, mapping, and other remote sensing (such as detecting lightning and forest fires) would be almost totally lost in the absence of satellites. Military intelligence would be relegated to methods from the 1960s, such as high altitude aircraft flyovers (with all the associated limitations and risks including being shot down). However, it would be possible to provide telecommunications services from solely terrestrially based equipment.
It’s easy to highlight terrestrial microwave as a long haul telecommunications backbone as that’s been done before. Microwave communications has been operational since the 1930s through its heyday with the AT&T Long Lines system of microwave relay links, which carried much of US long distance telephone traffic in the 1950s.1 Although it has been eclipsed in many areas by satellite connectivity, microwave remains in the connectivity chain of 21st Century communications systems.2
With no satellites, however, microwave communications would be back in the sun as soon as the shock of losing satellite services wore off and assessment of alternatives was made. The additional frequencies needed could readily come from that which was allocated (at that point) to defunct satellite systems. Transferring satellite spectrum to terrestrial services is already occurring to support the build out of 5G infrastructure.3
Current microwave communications technology is not your (great) grandparents’ 1950s AT&T analog system. Digital communications (including digitized voice) is the order of the day, and optimization measures such as Automatic Coding and Modulation (ACM)4 help to more efficiently utilize frequency spectrum in terrestrial microwave shots. And the expertise exists for developing systems to power remote microwave sites (e.g. on mountaintops) with renewable sources.5
With the microwave communications industry still intact and advancing equipment and antenna design, there’s an opportunity to further build out terrestrial microwave communications systems now—before a catastrophic Kessler Syndrome event leaves most of our phones and Internet service disconnected.
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