Broadband satellite Internet available to any inhabitant of the Earth anywhere in the world is a dream that is gradually becoming a reality. Satellite Internet used to be expensive and slow, but that will soon change.
They are engaged in the implementation of an ambitious project in a good sense, or rather, projects - SpaceX, OneWeb. In addition, at various times Facebook, Google and the state corporation Roscosmos announced the creation of their own network of Internet satellites. For most, things never got beyond simple fantasies or the initial stages of satellite development.
What has already been done?
SpaceX Elon Musk
A lot of things. So, the SpaceX corporation planned to launch 4425 satellites into the Earth's orbit, then it was decided to increase their number to 12. It may well be that this is not all, but the swarm will be increased to several tens of thousands.
The cost of the project is about $ 10 billion. In May last year, Elon Musk's company launched using the Falcon launch vehicle. Several systems were then deorbited to test various aspects of the project.
The rest stayed to work. In November 2019, another 60 satellites were launched. And then, in January of this year, the company launched another 60 devices, they were delivered into orbit at an altitude of 290 km above the Earth. At the moment, 300 satellites have been launched out of an estimated 12. 000 of them are working as they should.
In early March, news broke that SpaceX was building satellites faster than it could launch them. Now, if we divide the number of launched vehicles by the number of months that have passed since the first vehicles were sent into orbit, it turns out that on average the company sends 1,3 satellites per month.
The problem with launches is that some booster flights have to be rescheduled due to weather, technical errors and other issues. Therefore, already now dozens of satellites are ready, they are on Earth and are waiting in the wings. This is not a fantasy, but an official statement from the company. About how it's all going to work .
Musk: Starlink satellites are being produced faster than we can launch them. We need Starship for launch costs to come down
β Sandra Erwin (@Sandra_I_Erwin)
It may well be that SpaceX is the first space company to produce more orbiters than it can launch. The SpaceX factory is working great.
By the way, earlier and now a number of astronomers from the Russian Federation and abroad accused SpaceX of the fact that many thousands of satellites in orbit of the planet would lead to the complication of space observations or even make such observations impossible. But SpaceX said that after all the satellites take their places, they will become less visible. In the near future, astronomers are unlikely to be able to suspend the project. The Internet will work after the number of devices in orbit exceeds 800.
OneWeb
The successes of the SpaceX competitor are more modest, but the OneWeb project should not be underestimated. The company is going to launch about 600 satellites into orbit, which will provide access to broadband Internet in any, even the most remote corner of the planet.
Wireless communication will be available not only to those of us who are on the surface of the planet, but also to those who fly in an airplane.
According to the head of the British company, in a year and a half, all satellites should be delivered into orbit. They are launched with the help of launch operator Arianespace, which, in turn, has entered into an agreement with Roscosmos.
The first six OneWeb satellites were sent into orbit in February last year from the Kourou spaceport. The remaining 34 - in February of this year from Baikonur.
Adrian Stekel: CEO of OneWeb/AFP
Now OneWeb plans to launch its devices about once a month - of course, not one by one, but by a group. For several years, this company has been trying to negotiate a partnership with Russia in addition to launching satellites by Roscosmos. But, unfortunately, there are more problems here than successes - both in terms of providing frequencies, and in terms of regulating communications by law enforcement officers, which is βeverywhereβ. The secret services are not too happy with this option.
SoftBank, Virgin, Qualcomm, Airbus, the Mexican Grupo Salinas, the government of Rwanda, and some others acted as the company's investors, so you don't have to worry about the future of the OneWeb satellite network even in the light of new events in the economic field.
What about connection costs?
So far, calculations are known only in terms of cost, without a margin for consumers. Not so long ago, one of the Viasat forum users compared (it is not a competitor to Starlink from SpaceX and OneWeb, as well as the other two mentioned above).
He calculated the price of one gigabit per second for different networks (the unit of measurement is $ / GBps, as indicated on the forum).
Here's what happened:
- $2,300,000 Viasat 2
- $700,000 Viasat 3
- $300,000 OneWeb phase 1
- $25,000
- $10,000 Starlink w/Starship
In addition, he also calculated the cost of manufacturing and launching satellites of these companies into Earth's orbit:
- Viasat 2 - $600 million
- Viasat 3 - $700 million
- OneWeb β $500
- Starlink - $500
In general, the public global Internet should appear in a year and a half. Well, in 3-5 years, both projects, StarLink and OneWeb, will reach their design capacity and, possibly, add more satellites to their networks. Happiness is not far off, %usasrname%.
Source: habr.com