Iridium

Overview of Iridium

Iridium Certus® – the advanced new multi-service platform powered by Iridium
Powered by the Iridium NEXT low-Earth orbit satellite constellation, Iridium Certus® is a new multi-service communications platform set to disrupt the industry status quo by bringing a more efficient, reliable and cost-effective way to achieve 100 per cent global connectivity.

Iridium-192 is a very strong gamma ray emitter, with a gamma dose-constant of approximately 1.54 μSv·h−1·MBq−1 at 30 cm, and a specific activity of 341 TBq·g−1 (9.22 kCi·g−1).[7][8] There are seven principal energy packets produced during its disintegration process ranging from just over 0.2 to about 0.6 MeV.

Iridium ground stations interconnect the satellite network with land-based fixed or wireless infrastructures worldwide to improve availability.[61] Station-to-station calls from one satellite phone to another can be routed directly through space without going through a ground station.

Iridium has staff on duty 24-7 to support the technical operations of the system, and though Adams spent several hours that night coordinating an effort to identify the approximate location of the flier’s last transmission, by the time rangers found the man, he was dead.

Iridium NEXT launch plans originally[35] included launch of satellites on both Ukrainian Dnepr launch vehicles and SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicles, with the initial satellites launching on Dnepr in April 2016; however, in February 2016, Iridium announced a change.

Iridium Monthly Plans for satellite phones include 10-200 voice minutes of airtime each month, no long-term contracts, free voicemail and call display, free incoming calls and text, airtime pooling, and voice and data coverage everywhere on Earth via the Iridium network.

Iridium is a very rare element in the Earth’s crust, but is found in anomalously high concentrations (around 100 times greater than normal) in a thin worldwide layer of clay marking the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, 66 million years ago.

Iridium, a mobile satellite services pioneer that completed its second-generation constellation last year, said April 28 that it expects to finish 2020 with more revenue than 2019 even though the coronavirus pandemic has made full-year forecasting impossible.

Iridium flies still, six groups of eleven 1,412-pound satellites orbiting Earth every 100 minutes, guided from the basement of a featureless two-story office building in Leesburg, Virginia, which houses a bank of Sun computers as long as a football field.

Iridium and osmium were identified in the black residue remaining after dissolving platinum ore with aqua regia, a mixture of 25% nitric acid (HNO3) and 75% hydrochloric acid (HCl).

Mine

South Africa “accounts for some 80 percent of the six to eight tonnes of iridium mined each year,” Vincent Donnen, at the top School of Mines in the eastern French city of Nancy, told AFP.

Network

Support

With state-of-the-art facilities around the world supporting unparalleled network operations, Iridium’s dedicated international team of experts pushes the limits, breaks down barriers, and continues to establish new standards for what’s possible in the satellite industry.

Is a US Number Helpful?

Users with docked satellite phones that are always ready to receive calls often choose to have a US Number.  However, most satellite phones in the field are kept powered off to save battery strength. So, in this case, a US number has no benefit because incoming calls route to voice mail, and retrieving the voice mail causes additional airtime costs. Fortunately, there is a better way! Tell your friends to send a free text message to your satellite phone.Here are instructions.  Also, it is important to understand that your Iridium mobile number (not your US number) will appear on caller ID.

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What Is Iridium?

Iridium is a chemical element, and one of the transition metals on the periodic table.Iridium appears as symbol Ir on the periodic table and has an atomic weight of 192.217 and a density of 22.56 g/cm³, making it the second-densest known element.Because iridium is so expensive, it is typically used only in applications that require a very small amount of the element.

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Why is the price of iridium, a rare metal, soaring?

The rare and very expensive metal iridium, part of the platinum group, has tripled in price in recent months as tight supply in its main source South Africa runs into increasing demand.

How Does Iridium Cover the Entire Earth?

The Iridium constellation is a fully meshed network of 66 low-earth orbiting (LEO) cross-linked satellites that ensuring coverage over the entire globe.That’s more satellites than any other network.

How Does Iridium Work?

Global coverage is accomplished using a sophisticated mesh network of 66 cross-linked Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites in polar orbits about 781 km above the earth.Iridium performs call switching in space instead of on earth so that the call path is unaffected by local earth weather conditions.Since Iridium satellites are relatively close to the earth, the call latency experienced by Iridium users is almost unnoticeable compared to the latency experienced by callers using the Inmarsat or Thuraya satellite networks that use geostationary satellites.

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History of Iridium

In 1803, Smithson Tennant analyzed the insoluble residue and concluded that it must contain a new metal.

In 1980 scientist Luis Alvarez and his son Water Alvarez found significant amounts of iridium in a certain part of the Earth’s crust, spread out all over the Earth’s surface.

In 1999, Iridium agreed to timeshare a portion of spectrum, allowing radio astronomers to observe hydroxyl emissions; the amount of shared spectrum was recently reduced from 2.625 MHz.[54][55]

In 2000 Iridium had come within a whisker of disappearing itself, but it lived to transmit again, thanks to the magic of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In 2017, Iridium began launching[22][23][24][25] Iridium NEXT, a second-generation worldwide network of telecommunications satellites, consisting of 66 active satellites, with another nine in-orbit spares and six on-ground spares.

In 2019, Iridium launched their next-generation LEO constellation, Iridium NEXT, which replaced the company’s existing global constellation in one of the largest technology upgrades ever completed in space.

In 2019, the company completed a generational upgrade of its satellite network and launched its new specialty broadband service, Iridium Certus®.

In 2019, the second-generation of Iridium satellites (called Iridium NEXT) entered commercial service.

In 2020, its revenue grew to a record $583 million, and the company announced its first stock buyback plan.