Amazon’s Project Kuiper planning laser links?
January 29, 2020
Jeff Bezos’ mega-constellation Project Kuiper is advertising (at ‘Amazon Jobs’) for a “Senior Opto-Mechanical Engineer”.
This is just one position amongst many which suggests that Project Kuiper is dramatically ramping up its hiring, and with a specification that calls for laser linking between satellites.
This position needs a talent to fulfil a task specified as: “You will be responsible for development of high bandwidth systems for free space optical communication between satellites. You will lead characterization of commercial, off-the-shelf components, drive development of custom components where needed, to achieve low-cost, light-weight, and reliable systems that meet the performance requirements. You will support the optical design development, optical assembly, integration and test development.”
The job spec states the candidate needs 10+ years in optical engineering, physics or related disciplines.
The Amazon job ad says: “Innovation is part of our DNA! Our goal is to be Earth’s most customer centric company, and we are just getting started. We need people who want to join an ambitious program that continues to push the state of the art in distributed systems and hardware design.”
Other recent Project Kuiper job ads talk about hiring Mechanical Engineers, Senior Antenna Engineers, Ground Support Engineers.
The Amazon plan calls for a global network of 3000 satellites to provide broadband internet around the planet.
Other posts by Chris Forrester:
- Differing opinions on Project Kuiper
- IRIS2 contract signing at year-end
- Icasa “over-reached” in confiscating StarSat kit
- Starlink tests D2C in Romania, US, Japan
- European telcos unite against Starlink D2C
- Rivada insists “deadlines will be met”
- Ergen will gain “greatest opportunity” by losing DISH
- Rivada’s latest problems could be fatal
- SES confirms 25c dividend