What is Starlink Satellites, the crazy internet project of Elon Musk?

Starlink or Starlink satellites; A project that will take the internet event of Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, to another dimension. Nowadays, when you raise your head to the sky, there are some things to know about Starlink satellites that you can see even with the naked eye.

First of all, what exactly is Starlink?

Starlink; The name of the project that SpaceX aims to offer high quality broadband internet. First, on May 24, 2019, the first 60 satellites were launched into space with the falcon 9 rocket.

This project, which will consist of 42 thousand satellites in total, was first mentioned by Elon Musk in 2015. Then, after designing 2 different satellite prototypes called tintin a and tintin b as a result of long efforts, the project was deeply silent. Until November 2018, it was approved by fcc to orbit 7500 satellites.

60 satellites were sent as the first action after approval. These satellites test satellites and their purpose to test communication systems around the world and autonomous systems called krypton thrusters. This autonomous system is intended to prevent any debris or orbit from occurring between satellites.

Moreover, since 95% of the satellites are dropped due to any problems, they are not designed to burn and disappear as soon as they enter the atmosphere. Each satellite has 5 laser systems. They basically work with logic in fiber optics and take their positions instantly. This is also important for preventing collision. This is the autonomous system we call krypton thrusters.

The cost of fiber optic cables to be laid by America in the transition from 4g to SpaceX 5g in the next 7 years will be 150 billion dollars, while the total cost of Starlink to SpaceX is 10 billion dollars.

What will Starlink do?

So, what will Elon Musk 5g satellites do? Electromagnetic waves (light and radio waves) move at 300 thousand km / h in the void, but this changes with the start of the wave starting on a fiber optic cable or a copper transmission line. The electromagnetic wave slows down by a velocity factor inside a denser carrier. For an average copper cable, this speed is around 0.69.

Currently, if you want to send data from London to New York with ac2 fiber (New York – Cornwall), the data travel time for this 12,800 km line is theoretically 63 ms. When delays such as fiber-electricity conversions and switching of packets are added, the shortest possible time to reach is 76 ms. The cost of hibernia express, which is laid to reduce this time by 20 ms, to reduce 56’ms in total, is about 300 million dollars.

Let’s come to Starlink. For now, we have two options for orbit: geostationary and leo geostationary means satellites that synchronize with the world and look at the same point in the projection, satellites such as hotbird are always in this orbit, and the orbital altitude of these satellites is 36,000 km. The time required for a data trip to the satellite and back on the ground is 240 ms, while Starlink is only 550 km above the ground (low earth orbit), and the time required for a trip is only 3.6 ms.

According to patent documents, each Starlink satellite contains 5 directable laser transceivers. After a data packet coming out of the ground reaches any of the satellites, it will be switched to the other satellite from the shortest path in space with these laser transceivers. Briefly, the data packet that sets off from any point in the world will travel almost in a carrier in the space (the velocity of the em wave in the air is almost the same as in the space) instead of the fiber cable. What does this mean, theoretically a trip between London and New York can be completed by 42 ms with the Starlink system.

Time is everything for giant exchanges where millions of dollars have changed hands in milliseconds. the speed of light is constant in space. We do not know a way to send data faster than this in the universe right now. Probably we will not know for a very long time. velocity factor is not an overridden physics rule either. I think the 300 million dollars spent on hibernia express means the importance of every millisecond to earn only 20ms. This difference increases even more as the distance between exchanges such as London and Singapore increases.

Starlink will be up to 20 ms faster than other data transfer methods unless one exits for the world and the financial market and installs a similar system. Holding such a power, it will attract all finance and critical data traffic in a short time. It is difficult to predict a different monopoly and how it will bring results.

In summary, the main purpose of Starlink 5g is not to bring internet to Eskimo in Alaska.

Source: eksisozluk.com