VOL 63: Elon Musk Starlink is a 'stepping stone' to Mars
Elon Musk's Starlink is a satellite internet service that could help him colonize Mars.
Today at a Glance
This is the story of Starlink
Seriously?
Okay, continue explaining..
How Starlink Works?
How Starlink Delivers Internet From Space?
Starlink: A Threat to Internet Providers?
Countries where Starlink is available
Starlink Competitors
Conclusion
Quote of The Week
"Starlink is an exciting development in the internet industry, offering a unique solution to the problem of limited connectivity in remote and rural areas.”
— — —
Karim Lesina, Senior Vice President of International External Affairs at AT&T
This is the story of Starlink
In 2012, Elon Musk saw a problem!
He wanted to establish a city on Mars, but he lacked the necessary funds. After three years of mind mapping, he unveiled the solution to his money problem: STARLINK.
Seriously?
Yeah.
No investor will give money to build a city on Mars. Elon needed to find the money himself. SpaceX was making good money from its cheap and powerful rockets. But it wasn’t enough to build a city on Mars.
Lol!
Okay, continue explaining..
Space rocket isn’t a very big market. Elon needed to find a very big market. A trillion-dollar market. He chose the internet market. His idea was to use SpaceX rockets to launch satellites in space and provide internet on Earth.
Right now, providing internet is very expensive and time-taking, internet companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars and many years to lay an undersea cable, to provide internet. Starlink will do this much faster, and much cheaper.
Launching Starlink satellites A SpaceX’s Falcon9 rocket is 1000 times cheaper than a normal communication satellite launch. So they can launch hundreds of satellites at a time and use mass production to make cheap satellites. Once you send the Starlink satellite in orbit, it starts beaming internet. It takes one week to cover its launching cost. The remaining 299 weeks are pure profit.
So in January 2015, Elon Musk announced Project Starlink. 4 years later, on 23rd May 2019, the first batch of Starlink satellites (60) was launched aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. As of May 2023, there are over 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, and the company plans to launch a total of 12,000 satellites.
Hmm Okay, How Does Starlink Work?
Starlink is designed to provide high-speed, low-latency internet access to areas that are underserved by traditional terrestrial internet providers. The service is currently available in select countries, but SpaceX plans to expand availability to more countries in the coming years.
Starlink has been praised for its potential to provide high-speed internet access to rural and remote areas. However, the service has also been criticized for its environmental impact. A large number of satellites in orbit could pose a risk to other satellites and spacecraft, and the satellites could also contribute to light pollution.
Despite the challenges, Starlink has the potential to revolutionize the way people access the internet. The service could provide high-speed internet access to people who have never had it before, and it could also help to close the digital divide.
Here are some of the benefits of using Starlink:
High-speed internet access: Starlink can provide download speeds of up to 300 Mbps, which is much faster than the average internet speed in many countries. And as more satellites are launched and the technology improves, speeds could increase even further.
Low latency: Starlink has a low latency of 20ms, which is comparable to the latency of traditional terrestrial internet providers.
Global coverage: Starlink is currently available in select countries, but SpaceX plans to expand availability to more countries in the coming years.
Here are some of the challenges of using Starlink:
High cost: Starlink is currently very expensive, with a starting price of $600 for the hardware and $49 per month for the subscription.
Limited availability: Starlink is currently only available in select countries.
Environmental impact: The large number of Starlink satellites in orbit could pose a risk to other satellites and spacecraft, and the satellites could also contribute to light pollution.
So How Does Starlink Deliver Internet From Space?
Starlink delivers internet from space by using a constellation of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The satellites use radio waves to transmit data to and from ground stations on Earth. When a user signs up for Starlink service, they are provided with a dish that is used to receive the radio waves from the satellites. The dish is then connected to a router, which provides internet access to the user's devices.
Starlink's use of LEO satellites has several advantages over traditional satellite internet providers. First, the satellites are much closer to Earth, which means that the latency (the time it takes for data to travel from the user to the satellite and back) is much lower. Second, the satellites can be more densely packed in LEO, which means that there is less interference between them. Third, the satellites can be replaced more easily than geostationary satellites, which are much further away from Earth.
Alright. Is Starlink A Threat to Internet Providers?
Right now, the answer is too early to tell. Maybe yes, maybe not.
The big questions is how reliable, or how secure will it be, and the big ones: how fast and how much?
Starlink could pose a threat to some internet providers as it offers a number of advantages over traditional providers, most especially its global coverage and high-speed internet access.
It is unlikely that Starlink will destroy internet providers in the near future, but it could displace some providers in certain markets. If Starlink is able to overcome its challenges, it could have a significant impact on the internet landscape in the years to come.
Countries where Starlink is available
As of May 2023, Starlink is available in 32 countries:
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay
Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
Asia: Japan, South Korea Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Israel
Africa: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan Tanzania, Uganda
Are There Competitors?
Starlink has several competitors in the satellite internet market, a few of them are:
OneWeb: OneWeb is a British company that is also building a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to provide broadband internet access. OneWeb has launched over 400 satellites so far, and it plans to launch a total of 648 satellites.
Amazon Kuiper: Amazon is also planning to launch a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to provide broadband internet access. Amazon has not yet launched any satellites, but it has plans to launch 3,236 satellites.
Telesat: Telesat is a Canadian company that is already providing satellite internet services. Telesat is planning to launch a new constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to improve its service.
Starlink is currently the leader in this market, but it is still early days, and the competition is likely to heat up in the coming years.
Conclusion
Overall, Starlink is a promising new technology with the potential to revolutionize the way people access the internet. However, the service is still in its early stages of development, and there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed before it can become widely available.
When Starlink becomes widely available, it will provide internet 100 times cheaper than its competitors. Billions of underprivileged humans will be able to access the internet. And Elon Musk will finally get the money to build the city on Mars.
It is unclear if Elon Musk will use the gains of Starlink to fund his vision of building a city on Mars. However, one thing is for sure: it would be a very Elon Musk thing to do.
Elon Musk has said that he wants to build a city on Mars, and Starlink is one of the ways he plans to fund it. He has said that “Starlink could generate billions of dollars in revenue, which could be used to fund the development of a city on Mars.”
Of course, it's still a long way off, and there are a lot of challenges that need to be overcome before it can happen. But if Elon Musk is able to pull it off, it would be a truly remarkable achievement. And who knows? Maybe you'll be one of the first people to live there.