April 13, 2008: Pigs In Space

[xoxoxoBruce]

I read a recent interview with 93 year old Harold Rosen. He is the inventor of geosynchronous communications satellites—the satellite systems we use today to communicate and transmit data around the world instantly.
Syncom, the world’s first geostationary communications satellite, launched in 1963, was born of Rosen’s ingenuity, and he is still consulted on new satellites.

Q: What might the future have in store?

A: I see the pace of satellite innovation slowing down. I believe there’s a limit to what we can do and there’s definitely a limit on the bandwidth and orbit slots available to us.
The hot new area is the Internet. That technology hasn’t even reached its adolescence, whereas satellite technology is much more mature.