Month: November 2020

Enlarge / Sixty Starlink Internet communication satellites from SpaceX are seen in the night sky over Vladivostok. (credit: Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

NASA has formally commented (PDF) on a request by a US company to build a megaconstellation of satellites at an altitude of 720km above the Earth's surface, citing concerns about collisions. This appears to be the first time that NASA has publicly commented on such an application for market access, which is pending before the Federal Communications Commission.

"NASA submits this letter during the public comment period for the purpose of providing a better understanding of NASA's concerns with respect to its assets on-orbit, to further mitigate the risks of collisions for the mutual benefit of all involved," wrote Samantha Fonder, an engineer for the space agency.

At issue are plans put forth by AST & Science, which intends to build a constellation of more than 240 large satellites, essentially deploying "cell towers" in space to provide 4G and possibly 5G broadband connection directly to cell phones on Earth. The company, based in Midland, Texas, calls its constellation "SpaceMobile" and has raised an estimated $120 million.

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  Fully unboxed, we see the Pi 400 itself, a 247 page full color beginner's guide, power supply, USB mouse, and one micro-HDMI to HDMI cable. [credit: Jim Salter ]

Late Friday afternoon, I got an exciting SMS notification—my review sample of the new Raspberry Pi 400 had arrived. I learned of the new Pi model last week while interviewing Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton and Canonical desktop engineering director Martin Wimpress about Ubuntu 20.10's newly improved desktop support for the Pi hardware family.

In brief, the Pi 400 is a slightly faster version of the 4GiB Pi 4 which ships preassembled in a small, wedge-shaped chassis with integrated keyboard. The new model directly targets desktop replacement use and can be purchased solo for $70 or as a full kit (as seen above) for $100.

The new form factor—which has apparently been in the works ever since the introduction of the official Raspberry Pi keyboard—addresses and enthusiastically supports the Pi 4's growing use case as a replacement or alternative for the traditional desktop PC. Upton told Ars that the Pi 400 is about 20 percent faster than the Pi 4; it has largely the same components under the hood but on a differently laid-out board, and its BCM2711 CPU is clocked a touch higher than the BCM2711 in the Pi 4.