Hey everybody, welcome back to Explained on 5. The podcast where we take the questions you always want to ask and talk about them in a way that's easy to understand. We are your hosts, I'm Tim. Hey everyone, I'm Kevin.
So Kevin today is a tech-focused episode where we are diving into Starlink, SpaceX's ambitious project to blanket the Earth with high speed internet. What exactly is Starlink and how does it aim to change the game for internet productivity? So Starlink is a satellite internet constellation being constructed by SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace company, and it aims to provide high speed, low latency internet across the entire globe. A pretty game changer for areas where traditional broadband is unavailable or unreliable.
When you say it's being constructed, isn't it already up and running? So SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019, yes, but they're actually still constructing or adding to it. So in March of 2024, Starlink consisted of over 6,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with designated ground transceivers. And the company plans nearly 12,000 satellites to be deployed in the near future with even a possible lead expansion to 34,000 for drought.
Okay, you mentioned low Earth orbit. Can you break down the technology that makes this possible? How does the Starlink satellite internet actually work? So you're asking about low Earth orbit or LEO for short.
And unlike traditional satellite internet, which relies on a few satellites in geostation area orbit, Starlink uses a constellation of thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit. And because of that proximity to Earth, it actually drastically reduces latency and thus increases internet speeds. Now the term LEO region is used for the area of space below an altitude of 2,000 kilometers. A low Earth orbit is an orbit around the Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less.
So that means it makes at least 11 and a quarter of orbits per day. How contrast that with a geostation area orbit, which orbits exactly one time each day. Now you can see that a geostation area orbit also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit or geover short. That orbits are precisely 35,786 kilometers in altitude above Earth's equator.
Wow, I see. Okay, so 35,000 kilometers above the Earth or two kilometers. That's quite a big difference. Exactly, get it.
And so that's why traditional satellite internet summers are of a very high latency to set quite long distance that signals have to travel to these geostation area or satellites in back. So Starlink's low Earth orbit satellites reduce that distance, offering much faster and more reliable internet service. So with so many satellites though, space debris and the risk of collisions must be a major problem. How does SpaceX manage to combat these risks?
Well they've designed these satellite satellites with something called autonomous collision avoidance systems. And what that means is they track space debris and other satellites in real time and actually adjust their orbits when necessary to avoid collisions. There have been some concerns among astronomers also about the impact on night sky observations, like astronomy observations, how is Starlink addressing these concerns? SpaceX reports that they are working on solutions, including making satellites maybe less reflective and also adjusting their orbits to minimize their visibility from Earth.
Overall, it's a work in progress. They're actively engaging with the astronomical community to try to mitigate these impacts. And how about from a user experience? How does Starlink ensure that it's services fast and reliable, especially in these hard to reach areas?
Generally, by using a vast, vast constellation of satellites and ground-based stations, so Starlink can provide widespread coverage and also maintain high speeds, even in remote locations. And that's really one of its big benefits in figure out areas. It's a significant step towards closing that digital divide. And so what are they still working on?
What's on the horizon for Starlink? Any expansion plans or improvements? So SpaceX is continuously launching more satellites to expand coverage. They're also working on next-generation satellites that will further increase speeds and reduce latency, overall enhancing their user experience worldwide.
And how about the cost? What does it cost relative to a traditional internet service provider? It is a little bit more expensive than most traditional services. But the goal is to make Starlink competitive and accessible over time.
So as the network grows and costs decrease, it could and should significantly improve global internet accessibility. And is it really global or do they need regulatory approval to operate in each country? Good question. Yes, they actually do.
So in order to offer satellite services in any nation-state, the International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, regulates and long-standing international treaties that require those landing rights to be granted by each country jurisdiction and also within the country by the National Communications Regulators. So you're right, even though the Starlink network has near-global reach already, broadband services can only be provided in countries where they have approval. And so in 2022, this was about 40 countries. I see.
Lastly, can we circle back to this technology that Starlink uses to avoid collisions in space? Oh, yes. Sounds pretty fancy, right? So Starlink satellites are equipped with actually pre-advanced propulsion systems and also AI-driven algorithms to autonomously navigate around potential collisions.
It's a cutting edge approach to ensuring the safety and longevity of the whole constellation. And early on in their lifetime, they actually had some near-misses, am I right? Yeah, yeah. Early in the program, a near-miss occurred when SpaceX actually did not move a satellite that had a 1,000 in 1,000 chance of colliding with a larger European one.
But hey, they have gotten better since then. I believe in a six-month period, SpaceX's Starlink broadband soundlights made more than 25,000 collision avoidance maneuvers. So this was between December 2022 and May 2023. And these avoidance maneuvers were to avoid potentially dangerous approaches to other spacecraft or the orbital debris and just according to a report filed by SpaceX with the US Federal Communications Commission.
I see. Very interesting. Did you want something to do? If you did, send us an email.
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