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One of Hubble’s satellites in a terrestrial test chamber.Image Credits:Hubble Network
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Hubble Networkhas become the first company in history to prove a Bluetooth connection straight to a orbiter — a vital engineering validation for the company , potentially opening the room access to link millions more devices anywhere in the world .
The Seattle - based startup launched its first two satellites to revolve on SpaceX ’s Transporter-10 rideshare mission in March ; since that time , the ship’s company confirm that it has incur signals from the onboard 3.5 mm Bluetooth chips from over 600 kilometers away .
The sky is really the limit for space - enable Bluetooth devices : The startup says its engineering can be used in markets include logistics , cattle trailing , smart collars for pets , GPS watches for fry , car inventory , construction sites and land temperature monitoring . Haro said the low - hang fruit is those industries that are desperate for web reportage even once per twenty-four hours , like distant plus monitoring for the oil and gas diligence . As the constellation scales , Hubble will bend its tending to sphere that may need more frequent updates , like soil monitoring , to uninterrupted coverage use cases like gloam monitoring for the elderly .
Once it ’s up and draw , a customer would simply require to desegregate their machine ’ chipsets with a piece of microcode to enable association to Hubble ’s connection .
Hubble was founded in 2021 by Life360 co - founder Alex Haro , Iotera father Ben Wild ( who sold his startup to Ring ) and aerospace railroad engineer John Kim . Haro say the first time Wild presented the idea of connecting a Bluetooth buffalo chip to a satellite , his initial reaction was , “ No freaking room . ” And it does voice softheaded , especially as consumer electronics can struggle to link up to other Bluetooth - enabled gadget that are just a few feet off .
But the requirement is there : existent IoT gadget are force thirsty , costly to operate and miss global connectivity , the company says . These are fundamental limitation have-to doe with to Bluetooth - enabled equipment today , and they prevent many industries from leveraging IoT for their businesses .
The company joined Y Combinator ’s Winter 2022 cohort andclosed a $ 20 million Series A last March . Hubble ’s first foundation was to recrudesce software enabling off - the - ledge Bluetooth chips to communicate over very foresighted compass with low power .
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On the place side , the company also patented a phased array antenna that can launch on a small artificial satellite . The antennas work almost like a overstate glass , and it ’s what enable an off - the - ledge Bluetooth cow dung to intercommunicate with the Hubble satellite . The squad also had to solve Doppler - related problems , frequency mismatches that occur between tight - move objects convert data via radio wafture .
Hubble is aiming to set in motion a third artificial satellite on SpaceX ’s Transporter-11 mission this summertime and a 4th on Transporter-13 . Those four satellites will compose what Haro called the “ beta constellation , ” and pilot customers are starting to ferment their integrations on even today , he say . The inauguration design to launch the following 32 satellites all at once in the quaternary quarter of 2025 or the commencement of 2026 , though the launch supplier has not been select yet .
Those 36 satellite will compile Hubble ’s first “ production constellation , ” and they ’ll enable connecter with a Hubble artificial satellite roughly two - three 60 minutes per day from anywhere in the world .
