Last night, Elon Musk's SpaceX got very involved on the internet. Not in the way of one of those whoop whoop yeah! The web-style streams that still accompany their launches these days (although they have too), but launching the first 60 of SpaceX's 12,000 satellites that could ultimately provide fast internet access to all humans. , regardless of their location on the planet. It's Starlink, and that's ultimately what happens. Watch SpaceX launch last night and take Starlink into space:
What just launched SpaceX?
Last night, Base 40 was dispatched to Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a reusable Falcon 9 rocket loaded with 60 satellites. This is not unusual for a SpaceX rocket, although so far almost all launches have been on behalf of other business partners. In 19 2018, SpaceX was launched 21 times in total and in 2019, there were four. However, last night was different.
Starlink to launch 12,000 satellites into orbit (Image credit: SpaceX)
What is Starlink?
Starlink plans to place 12,000 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that provide low-bandwidth, low-latency, and low-cost Internet access for everyone on the planet. It's the end of the game. All you need to use Starlink is a €200 pizza-sized receiver. Each satellite will communicate with four others using lasers as they gravitate around Earth, creating a network of Ku-band and Ka-band broadband connectivity. , as fast as the speed of light encircling the Earth. Planet at all times and for all places. To connect connectivity to the surface with a light beam, a large network of ground stations will also be needed. So while 12,000 satellites sounds like a lot, it's only a fraction of the infrastructure SpaceX will need to build. Starlink will be phased out, but the ultimate goal is to have roughly 8,000 satellites in orbit just 500 km from the planet, and 4,000 satellites even higher, around 1,200 km.
SpaceX recently completed the launch of the Iridium NEXT constellation (Image credit: SpaceX)
What is the internet space?
Internet space is simply a satellite internet access. This is not a new thing. Telecommunications satellites are mainly in a geostationary orbit thousands of kilometers above the Earth's equator and follow the direction of the Earth's rotation, appearing to stay in the same place to serve a region. Its distance from Earth means a change of about a second or more. However, current Internet access via existing satellites is extremely limited; The Iridium LEO network offers a data transmission speed of 2.4 kbit / s and, although it will soon grow to 512 kbit / s (thanks to several dedicated SpaceX rocket launches, paradoxically), it is expensive and designed to serve companies and governments that need critical links in remote parts of the world (think container ships and Antarctic scientists), not the mass market. Starlink satellites will be 65 times closer to Earth than geostationary satellites and could also offer speeds of 10 Gbps, faster than fiber optics.
Starlink could help SpaceX get to Mars (Image credit: SpaceX)
Why is SpaceX entering the "internet space"?
If SpaceX can deliver 10 Gbps of data to every human on the planet and undermine terrestrial networks, it could become a major Internet service provider. Add to that the fact that 50% of humans still don't have internet access and you begin to understand why SpaceX is so interested in making the most of its own rocket launch capabilities. Although Starlink could cost more than €10 billion to create, it's clear that SpaceX expects Starlink to earn €30 billion a year by 2025. Starlink's success could be critical. Because of Elon Musk's plans to go to Mars.
Starlink satellites will be twice as tall as the International Space Station, but 65 times closer to Earth than geostationary satellites (Image credit: NASA)
When will Starlink be operational?
"The first 60 Starlink satellites won't offer many services to begin with. In fact, Elon Musk tweeted: "A lot of things are going to go wrong during the first mission. In addition, another 6 launches of 60 satellites are needed for minor coverage, 12 for moderate. Does SpaceX have this kind of capacity available? In fact, this is probably the case...they are partially reusable, remember. Space.com reports that SpaceX has expanded its manufacturing capacity to 40 rockets per year in anticipation of a business boom that would not have happened. "We thought the commercial market could extend to that, I think we probably would have liked, but now we have enough capacity to launch our Starlink system," said Gwynne Shotwell, President and CEO. SpaceX COO. This helps explain why SpaceX has decided to launch Starlink now. However, this first batch is more of a test bed than anything else; They will not be connected to the laser and will probably be used to test the ground-to-space links between the earth station antennas and the satellites. < p class="bordeaux-image-check">
Satellite broadband industry gets competitive (Image credit: OneWeb) Far from the. The world of satellite broadband is growing, and high-speed Internet in space looks more and more like the future. High-speed, expensive and regionally locked satellite broadband services arrive as OneWeb, with support from Intelsat, Virgin Qualcomm, SoftBank and Hughes Networks Systems, plans to launch 640 satellites in 21 launches to create global broadband by 2020 It launched its first 12 satellites in February. There's also Amazon, whose "Kuiper Project" could see 3,236 satellites create global broadband internet service after 2021. SpaceX Starlink is extremely ambitious, but it won't be alone.