Imagine, once you visited the top of the Himalayas or the deep Amazon Forest or most remote waters across the globe. You wished that you could make a video call to show the beauty of nature but found no network. It makes you sad but suddenly stars fall for you to connect you to the whole world. This is the star link.
What Is A Starlink?
With the ultimate goal of creating a low-cost, satellite-based broadband network that can provide internet access to everyone on the planet, Starlink is a satellite-based broadband network. One of several current initiatives to begin transmitting data signals from space is the Starlink network. SpaceX (Founder Elon musk) plans to develop the project into a constellation of around 12,000 satellites (with possible later extension as needed) that will deliver internet access to any location on the planet.
Since May 2019, around 3500 satellites had been launched and currently, around 3000 satellites are working. The SpaceX Starlink project commenced in 2014 and the latest eight-launch mission of 53 Starlink satellites was successfully executed on October 27, 2022, from the California-based Space launch complex.
The Fault In Our Stars
In one of Shakespeare’s plays, Julius Caesar, an aristocratic character named Cassius says: “Men used to be masters of their fortunes; the fault for our being underlings is not with the stars. It served as the basis for John Green’s superb novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” from which SpaceX borrowed the moniker “Star-link.” After 2023, it intends to provide mobile phone service throughout the world. By 2025, it is expected to generate more than $30 billion in revenue at a cost of at least USD 10 billion.
For People And Pro-people?
More than half of the world’s population, or about 4 billion people, do not currently have access to dependable Internet networks. And the reason for this is that wireless networks or fibre-optic cables, the conventional methods for delivering the Internet, cannot transport it across the entire planet. It is neither practical nor viable to lay up cables or mobile towers in many distant locations or locations with challenging terrain. Space-based satellite signals can readily get beyond this barrier.
How Does It Remain In Space?
To manoeuvre in orbit, maintain altitude, and direct the spacecraft back into the atmosphere after their mission, the Starlink satellites are equipped with Hall thrusters, which create an impulse using electricity and krypton gas.
Why In Low Earth orbit (LEO)?
LEO is a spacecraft orbit that lies between 160 and 1000 km above the Earth. No commercial aircraft travel over this area. Unlike satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO lies @ 35786 Km), low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites can have a slanted plane, therefore they are not always required to follow a specific course around the Earth. This implies that there are more satellite routes in LEO that are open. Proximity to the surface allows for higher-resolution image capture. It is also the same orbit where the International Space Station (ISS) is located and which encourages astronauts to fly more easily and quickly to and from it.
Benefits And A Step Towards A Better World
As they operate in LEO, starlink satellites can decrease latency. By doing this, the lag can be reduced to 20–30 milliseconds, which is about how long it takes for data to be transferred between terrestrial systems. Space signals can readily get through terrestrial barriers that fibre optic cables or wireless networks must navigate. In isolated locations or in areas with challenging topography, it is not practical to use wireless networks or the usual methods of delivering the internet, such as fibre-optic cables. Additionally, it will lessen the number of mobile towers that worry birds. Aside from that, disaster application efficiency, and fast, affordable internet.
Concerns That Can’t Be Avoided
Speed grows but stays slower than cable and fibre and is weather-sensitive. VPN (Virtual Private Network) is not supported. As it is placed at a lower altitude, its signal covers a relatively narrow area. To overcome and send signals to every region of the earth, a lot more satellites are therefore required. To counteract the effects of gravity, satellites in these orbits move at speeds that are more than twice as fast as those in geostationary orbit. Therefore, the network requires many more satellites to prevent data transmission interruptions. There will be more space junk produced. Other space objects will be difficult to monitor and detect due to the constellations of internet satellites in orbit. The likelihood of light pollution will rise.
Where Have We Seen It?
Following a request from the Ukrainian government to restore internet services that were destroyed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk declared on February 26, 2022, that the Starlink satellites had started operating over the country.
More Endeavour Needed
Though the name says it, it doesn’t link star. It visions linking people through internet connectivity. It can revolutionize the internet transmission system but concern on the humanistic aspect relates to data privacy and monopoly in the market same as face book’s basic internet concept. It is time to endeavor all speed, scales, spread, and sovereignty.
The Author Angad Kumar Sharma is a Ph.D Scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Roorkee.
(Only the media and headline of this content have been reworked by the Metaviews team)
