Elon Musk wants to give the Internet to the whole world. Elon Musk's dream of the "Internet of the World" Elon Musk launches satellites

Not so long ago, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, spoke about a project called Starlink, which is a free mobile Internet that works around the world. According to his idea, a network of several thousand satellites could cover the entire globe, providing access to the network to 100% of the world's population. Now this project seems like a fantasy, but in a few years it may become a reality, because the launch of the first satellites is scheduled for 2019-2020.

Today, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially approved the implementation of a project called Starlink, first presented to Elon Musk back in 2015. The government of the country where the brilliant inventor lives has also approved a program to launch satellites. All this means that now the dream of a businessman can become a reality, because all the approval documents were in his hands.

However, the FCC has put forward several conditions that will have to be met in order to implement the Starlink free mobile Internet project. It is allowed to build a global network of 12,000 satellites working as a whole in specific places in low Earth orbit, as the businessman planned. However, 4425 satellites should be at an altitude of 1150 to 1325 km, and they need to be put into operation within the next six years - until March 29, 2024. The remaining satellites, and there are as many as 7518 of them, must necessarily be at an altitude of 335 to 346 km. Their launch must be coordinated with the FCC to clarify all the details.

Thus, the US authorities themselves limited Elon Musk in time, in fact obliging him to launch free Starlink mobile Internet until the second quarter of 2024, after which the permission will cease to be valid. During this period, if everything goes according to plan, a network of 12,000 satellites will appear in Earth's orbit, which will cover 100% of the earth's surface with the Internet, providing high-speed Internet connections even in the center of the Pacific Ocean.

The signal delay in Starlink will not exceed 35 milliseconds, while the current satellite communication systems have this figure almost 20 times higher - as much as 600 ms. As Elon Musk himself said earlier, users will be able to count on speeds up to 1 Gbps. However, it should be understood that everyone who wants to use such a fast mobile Internet will not be able to, therefore, for ordinary people, the speed of a free Internet connection will probably be limited to 5-10 Mbps, and in order to receive a dedicated speed, you will need to pay money. At the same time, there will be no roaming, that is, the Internet will work in all countries of the world without restrictions.

While SpaceX is engaged in the implementation of the Starlink project, all residents of Russia can connect themselves to MTS, for which you need to pay only 200 rubles a month, but at the same time receive 10 GB of Internet traffic, 600 minutes of calls and 600 messages every month.

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Elon Musk's Space X company has launched a new project to launch Starlink broadband satellite Internet. Such an initiative can make all Internet providers and mobile operators in the world think hard. There is no need for base stations and Internet cables laid on the ground and the bottom of the oceans. The Falcon 9 rocket has already delivered the first satellites into Earth orbit.

The satellites launched into orbit are still small, but in the future they and the like should provide 5G communications for any inhabitant of the Earth, no matter where he is.

Musk plans to launch satellites into ultra-low Earth orbits between 330 and 1,300 kilometers. The total number of satellites needed to build the network is 12,000. They will be able to provide uninterrupted communications.

Building the entire space infrastructure will take time until 2020. By 2025, SpaceX expects to have over 40 million users and over $30 billion in revenue.

But Musk is not the only one with such ambitions. Competitors include OneWeb, Virign Galactic, Airbus, Softbank. In addition, Google comes to mind with its Project Loon. The Moscow Radio Engineering Research Institute has developed the latest electronic warfare system with such translators. It is reported that the “jammer” of signals will most likely be located in the Arctic, and some of the elements that make up it are already being tested and, according to a military department specialist, have managed to demonstrate “excellent results.”

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05/04/2017, Thu, 11:58, Msk , Text: Vladimir Bakhur

In the next six years, SpaceX intends to launch 4,425 satellites into orbit, which will be able to distribute Internet at a speed of 1 Gb / s throughout the planet. For launch, it is planned to use Falcon 9 rockets with the reuse of the first stage.

Global satellite Internet "at FOCL speeds"

Hearings on the company's plans began in the US Senate Ilona Mask SpaceX to create an infrastructure for high-speed (about 1 Gb / s) broadband Internet access on a global scale using a large-scale satellite system. According to official information from the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology, SpaceX Vice President for Government Projects Patricia Cooper(Patricia Cooper), as part of the hearings, presented the company's plan to put satellite Internet into commercial operation as early as 2019.

SpaceX plans include the start of testing the satellite system for Internet distribution in the last months of 2017 - the first months of 2018. If the test period is successfully completed, the company plans to form a complete global satellite system through a series of regular scheduled launches in 2019-2024. After that, the system will be launched at full capacity.

How the state can help

In her Senate speech, Patricia Cooper noted uneven public funding for broadband projects. According to her, satellite systems account for only 1.5% of all funds allocated by government agencies for the development of US broadband infrastructure.

In this regard, SpaceX proposes that the Senate pay close attention to funding projects that contribute to more efficient use of the frequency spectrum.

In addition, the SpaceX vice president also noted the irrelevance of the current rules requiring the completion of the launch of the entire satellite constellation within six years after the issuance of a license. These rules, according to SpaceX, were written more than 20 years ago and are no longer relevant in modern conditions.

Schematic representation of the SpaceX satellite constellation

SpaceX is also calling on the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to revise the current limits on the number of commercial rocket launches per year in the direction of increasing them.

Technical details of the project

In November 2016, SpaceX applied to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with an application for permission to launch 4425 satellites for high-speed Internet access globally. Unlike today's satellite Internet, which is expensive, slow, and, most importantly, with high latency, SpaceX promises much better Internet connection performance due mainly to the low-orbit placement of the satellite system.

To launch satellites, SpaceX plans to use Falcon 9 rockets with the reuse of the returnable first stage. According to Patricia Cooper, after reaching its design capacity, the satellite system will be able to provide Internet coverage over large areas with speed and bandwidth comparable to fiber optic networks.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with reusable first stage

4425 SpaceX low-orbit satellites will be located at an altitude of 1100 to 1325 km above the Earth's surface. The ground infrastructure of the project will include several control and coordination centers.

Each SpaceX satellite weighing about 850 pounds (about 350 kg) is designed for 5-7 years of active operation. According to the FCC filing, the project will be broken into two key phases. In the first phase, after the launch of the first 800 satellites, SpaceX will provide stable Internet to the United States and a number of other territories. In the second phase - after the launch of all 4425 satellites, the service will be able to provide users with high-speed Internet anywhere in the world.

SpaceX additionally emphasizes that the developed Internet distribution technology has a high degree of adaptation with the ability to dynamically focus large communication flows where it is needed at the moment. The company is fully confident that the satellite Internet system will be cost-effective.

Project financing

For the first time, the satellite Internet project was presented by the founder and head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, in 2015. At that time, it was about $10 billion in expenses. One of the first investors in the project was Google, which contributed $1 billion.

The satellite internet operating company is expected to be headquartered in the newly completed SpaceX building in Seattle, Washington.

Elon Musk owns a 54% stake in SpaceX, more than double the 22% he owns in Tesla.

To do this, SpaceX is going to launch over 11,000 satellites.

Elon Musk's SpaceX will launch the first test satellites for its future communications network on Saturday. With their help, she plans to provide Internet access around the world. But she has serious competitors.

SpaceX's new test gets far less attention than its recent launch of the world's most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy. Musk didn't even mention the event on Twitter because it's more of a prototype test so far. But if successful, SpaceX plans to launch commercial satellites next year and complete a network of more than 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit by 2024.

SpaceX began work on this project back in 2014, but then focused on improving its main Falcon 9 space rocket and preparing for the long-delayed Falcon Heavy launch.

The launch of test satellites means the company is still in the race to provide internet access. Previously, Google wanted to create its own network of satellites. But then it became one of SpaceX's biggest investors when it raised $1 billion in an investment round three years ago. Meanwhile, Japan's SoftBank and Richard Branson are backing Europe's OneWeb, which hopes to provide broadband Internet access from 2019. In total, US regulators have received 12 applications to test satellites that provide Internet access. In addition, Facebook wants to provide Internet connectivity in remote corners of the Earth using drones.

During the test, SpaceX will launch two small satellites into orbit and test communications with several stations on Earth, including Tesla headquarters. One of the main applications of future 5G networks is expected to be high-speed data transmission for self-driving cars. SpaceX plans to build a so-called peer-to-peer (mesh) network from satellites, which allows information to be transferred between them and provide full coverage of the Earth.

The volumes of data transmission over networks in the near future may increase dramatically, given the large number of satellite companies. "The future will be insatiable demand," says Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins. But it's too early to predict how many competing satellite networks will support 5G, he says.

At the beginning of the century, several ambitious satellite projects failed, slowing investment in the industry. But since then, the economic attractiveness of such projects has grown significantly. “The bankruptcy of Globalstar and Iridium scared everyone away,” says Robert Twiggs, one of the inventors of a new generation of low-cost CubeSats that have driven the cost of space projects down.

Small satellites located in low orbits have so far been used for satellite imagery of the Earth - for example, in the agricultural and energy industries. But they have not yet been used to transmit data over communication networks. Their proximity to Earth can help avoid the delays that satellites experience in higher orbits.

This week, SpaceX's plan was personally endorsed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. He urged the other members of the commission to approve the company's application for a communications license. The SpaceX project will provide high-speed Internet access to residents in rural areas of the United States, Pai said. Thus, SpaceX may be the first American company to obtain this license - following the European OneWeb, Space Norway and Canadian Telesat.

Just the other day, on February 22, 2018, the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched two experimental Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit at once. It is expected that in the medium term, this system will once and for all change the Internet on Earth, making it fast, cheap and affordable. In itself, such an idea is not new, but it seems that only Elon Musk decided to take it seriously.

1. Little but a lot

Satellite Internet is already available today, it is provided by several operators, it is quite inconvenient to use it. They use VSAT technology. Satellites hang in geostationary orbit at an altitude of about 36 thousand kilometers. The whole problem is that the signal comes with some delay, which makes such an Internet unsuitable for online games and video calls.

Elon's idea is to place satellites much closer to the Earth. This should improve communication, but will reduce the area covered by them. Musk intends to compensate for this by the number of satellites in orbit. So, in the short term, the company plans to launch 12,000 devices. They will hang at an altitude of 300 to 1,300 km. Such a device will weigh up to 500 kg, and will not exceed the size of a refrigerator.

2. Perfect web

If Elon Musk succeeds, then the Starlink project will cover the entire planet with the Internet. It will be stable and available, the signal will arrive with a delay of 25-35 milliseconds, and the speed will be up to 1 Gbps. There is really one "but". Such an Internet will work fine in rural areas, but in cities the signal will be worse.

3. Innovation against space debris

Starlink tests are already in full swing. SpaceX expects to launch the first workstations by 2019 and 2020. They want to completely cover the entire globe with satellites by 2024. Thus, the company will have to launch about 60 satellites per month. Initially, it was about 4425 spacecraft, but recently their number has been tripled. To maintain the desired pace, the company will have to launch two satellites per day.

It should be understood that 12 thousand satellites is a lot. For comparison: in 2017, there were 24,000 such objects in Earth orbit.

4. The market that doesn't exist

SpaceX believes satellite internet is a very lucrative market. Its annual turnover will reach billions of dollars. Giants such as Google and Fidelity have already been involved in the project. The Mask web will also earn by renting its satellites to other companies.

5. What does it all mean

It is still difficult to judge where satellite Internet will be deployed. The company plans first of all to connect Canada and the USA, then the countries of Europe. Subsequently, Elon Musk expects to connect the entire planet to his Internet. In addition, the project may have political complexities. Thus, Starlink competitor OneWeb was rejected by Russia for strategic reasons.

Recently, an ambitious entrepreneur now and then launches something somewhere. Here, for example, is a story about how everyone who saw it.