Satellite Launch Update #1: Decentralizing Space via SpaceX Rocket!

The time: 1:18 pm.

The place: XYO (not so) Super Secret Hacker Headquarters.

The scene: XYO Data Scientist Erik Saberski is sitting at his desk, sipping from a water bottle, and getting ready to change the world.

In December of this year, we’re launching our first satellite, EtherX. Its transport? SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

And we’re going to take you through it.

This first post is one of many monthly updates leading up to launch, where we’ll follow Erik and team as they plan and build and launch the EtherX. In these monthly reports, we’ll go deep into the process and dig into the nitty gritty details of what it will take to make this happen.

But first, we’re going to talk about why we’re doing this.

We often joke about our satellite launch and what the payload will be. But in reality, we want the payload to be small, but very, very meaningful. This component is an important piece of our soon to be released 2019 roadmap.

Our mission? To completely decentralize space.

The first thing we’re doing is working with a company to build a cubesat. Dimensions-wise, if you have one of those square boxes of tissues on your desk, it’s about the same size.

See? Small, but impactful.

Here’s a cubesat:

Image courtesy of NASA — sweatshirt not included.

The cargo for this satellite will be software to communicate with other satellites, which can, in turn, help fill out the XYO mesh network.

Here’s the plan:

1. EtherX acts an XYO sentinel
2. EtherX communicates with other satellites that use our software
3. These other satellites communicate with bridges and sentinels on earth
4. A huge number of connections between space and earth are made, making the XYO network more vast and robust than ever before

We’ll have an upcoming announcement about this satellite manufacturing company, but for now, we can’t name this new partner.

And as we make huge decisions, little decisions, test what we’ve put together, and wait, with massive anticipation, for that giant rocket to take flight, we’ll be sending along info. This is our coolest, most ambitious project yet, and when EtherX settles into its orbit and communicates from space to our vast XYO Network, we want you to celebrate this accomplishment with us.