How SpaceX revolutionizing the broadband internet with Starlink

Starlink is the satellite internet constellation project of SpaceX which started with the purpose of providing satellite internet access whole over the world. This would be surely the next generation internet network, providing low latency and high bandwidth internet. Starlink will deliver high-speed internet for the rural areas in the world also where it’s expensive, unreliable, or completely unavailable. So how all of that began?

I’ll quickly point out some key facts of the project. The idea was publicly announced in 2015. Therefore, they have opened a satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington to research, manufacturing, development, and do orbital controlling. SpaceX trademarked the name “Starlink” for their satellite internet project in 2017. They filed documentation for the space debris mitigation plan with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In 2018, FCC has issued approval with conditions. And the cost of the whole project is estimated to be about USD 10 billion and will be done within this decade.

FCC has granted SpaceX permission to launch 12,000 satellites and SpaceX has requested to deploy it further up to 40,000. SpaceX using Falcon 9 rocket to launch those and sent 60 satellites for each flight. So far they have orbited 901 satellites. SpaceX hopes to launch 400 satellites once a time with the upcoming launch vehicle, Starship. So they could complete the project quickly. For the first phase of the constellation, they plan to orbit 1,440 satellites. Those satellites will orbit Earth at an altitude of 550 km in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The satellites of the second phase will orbit on earth at over 1,000 km. All the satellites deploying as a consolidated unit. After the deployment, satellites use their onboard ion thrusters to separate from each other and settle in orbit.

Now let’s see how is the satellite’s design and engineering. A satellite approximately weighs 260 kg and has a compact and flat panel design to reduce the volume and includes 4 powerful phased array antennas. Satellites electrifying with solar panels and equipped with the ion thruster powered by Krypton. The thruster enables spacecraft to orbit raise, maneuver in space, and deorbit. Not only that, each one has Startracker and an autonomous collision-avoidance system.

However, SpaceX will have to face challenges in succeeding in the project. There are 2 major cases concerned.
Space Junk Problem
After SpaceX deploys thousands of satellites, there is a potential of having at least 100 dead and malfunctioning ones. Because they had a few from the initial deployments also. So this could increase the ongoing space debris issue. But SpaceX insisted that they will automatically deorbit such dead ones and burn up in the atmosphere. They also said satellites will use the automated collision-avoidance system to prevent that problem.

Light pollution issue for observational astronomy

Since thousands of satellites shine in the night sky, astronomers could not do their job as before, as the brightness of shine reflecting various cameras, and astronomy equipment. So astronomers and most of the related scientists protested the Starlink project. So as a solution, SpaceX introduced the darkening coating to apply for the next satellites and they had included some of those satellites also. According to the effectiveness of that, they will implement to use that coating to all next satellites. And they will provide satellite positions for astronomers, so they could do observations well.

SpaceX is now sending invitations to the public in rural areas of Nothern US and Canada for beta testing. So, users have to pay $499 for Starlink ground equipment and $99 as the monthly rental. The company confirms data speed could vary from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and latency from 20ms to 40ms. But SpaceX hopes to develop infrastructure furthermore and will expand near-global coverage by 2021 by decreasing the latency to 16ms to 19ms.

If you guys are interested in Starlink internet service, now you can register for their email newsletter at the Starlink website.
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