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SpaceX Wants Permission To Test Satellite Internet
An anonymous reader writes: SpaceX has filed documents with the FCC asking for permission to begin testing a project to serve internet access from space. "The plan calls for launching a constellation of 4,000 small and cheap satellites that would beam high-speed Internet signals to all parts of the globe, including its most remote regions." This follows news that Facebook and Google had stepped back their efforts in that arena. SpaceX could prove to be a better fit for the project, given that they need only rely on themselves for launching satellites into orbit. "The satellites would be deployed from one of SpaceX's rockets, the Falcon 9. Once in orbit, the satellites would connect to ground stations at three West Coast facilities. The purpose of the tests is to see whether the antenna technology used on the satellites will be able to deliver high-speed Internet to the ground without hiccups."
If at first you don't succeed... anyway no one has come close to "trying". They just played with the idea for a little. SpaceX could actually launch these satellites using their unsold cargo capacity on paid flights. SpaceX paying just the fuel cost to do the project is much different than say Google having to pay for entire launches.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I don't think FCC has jurisdiction over "all parts of the globe"
I doubt Musk is looking to create a satellite based Internet service. I think it more likely that he's using this network to serve as a testbed for an interplanetary network that covers Earth Mars. The global Internet service just provides him a way to monetize the project to fund its furthered development.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Using your number of 40,000km and the aforementioned 1,100km that SpaceX is considering, would a system with just 2.75% of the latency be enough for you? 3ms for every 100ms that you previously experienced due to the distance alone.
The latency would be ridiculous for most use cases.
Are you sure? A round-trip latency of 13ms to the base station(s) seems fairly reasonable to me. These are Low Earth Orbit satellites with an altitude between 99 and 1,200 miles, not geostationary ones at 22,236 miles; that's 1/18th the distance, and thus latency, of existing satellite Internet providers like WildBlue or HughesNet. At the minimum LEO altitude the latency would be another order of magnitude lower still (around 1ms). Even the high-LEO delay is significantly less than the 20-40ms time to the first router reported by traceroute for my Qwest DSL connection.
The trade-offs of LEO include a requirement for many more satellites for the same coverage, the necessity of hand-offs as the satellites pass overhead, and lower orbital lifetimes / higher fuel consumption due to increased atmospheric drag.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat