Re: Starlink Internet.
SpaceX Starlink Satellites
A ‘train’ of SpaceX Starlink satellites just after their launch. In the days after launch these trains break up as the satellites position themselves into their final orbits
https://explainingscience.org/2020/0...nk-satellites/
These satellites are being launched to deliver broadband to every corner of the globe. 180 have already been sent into orbit at the time of writing this post.
LThe purpose of the satellites is to provide worldwide fast Internet coverage. Traditional satellite internet operators have a small number of satellites in geostationary orbit, 35,800 km above the Earth’s surface. This limits speed, coverage and bandwidth. It takes around 0.12 seconds for radio-waves to travel between the satellite and Earth. SpaceX’s plan is to surround the Earth with a large number of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). These would link together into a ‘floating internet backbone’, providing a faster alternative to the fibreoptic cables that span the world.
By the year
2025 SpaceX plan to have
15,000 Starlinks in orbit distributed as follows
- 7,500 at 340 km altitude
- 1,600 at 550 km altitude
- 5,800 at 710 km altitude
According to a report on space.com, SpaceX have sought permission to put an additional
30,000 Starlink satellites into orbit. If this were approved and the satellites were launched,
it would bring the total number up to 45,000.
To put this in perspective,
in December 2019 there were only 2,200 operational satellites orbiting the Earth, of which 1,418 were in LEO, which is defined as an orbit below 2,000 km, (data from Union of Concerned Scientists (2019)).
Personally, I'm against cluttering up the sky with 45,000 satelllites when, apart from
2,666 existing satellites (operational and non-operational), there are already more than
20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at speeds up to
17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. There are
500,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger. There are
many millions of pieces of debris that are so small they can’t be tracked.
The impact of tens of thousands of visible satellites on astronomy has yet to be established.
...... and what will internet users do with all this coverage - subscribe to movie channels, go shopping and watch porn and sport .....