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What Elon musk's 42000 satellites do to
the earth.
You're looking at 60 satellites hurtling
into the sky. And over the next few decades, Elon Musk is hoping to send 42,000
of these satellites to space, 15 times the number of operational satellites in orbit
today.
It's part of Starlink, the expansive
constellation from Musk and SpaceX that hopes to bring the world low-latency
high-speed internet, promising no more buffering and nearly instantaneous
internet in every corner of the world. But experts worry it may come at a hefty
cost for space exploration. Nearly half of the world's population does not have
access to the internet,
because
most internet options require an extensive track of costly underground cables,
leaving many rural locations offline. And while satellite internet can reach
those areas...
Dave
Mosher: Traditional satellite internet is provided by a bus-sized spacecraft
that is launched 22,236 miles into space in orbit around Earth. Narrator: That
distance means the satellite can reach places that cables can't. But since that
one satellite is meant to service a lot of people, its data capacity is
limited, which then limits connection speeds. And that signal has to travel a
long way, creating a lot of lag.
This is
where Elon Musk and SpaceX come in. Mosher: Starlink is a globe-encircling
network of internet-beaming satellites that are trying to get you online no
matter where you are in the world. Narrator: And there's a rather persuading
element for SpaceX as well. Mosher: Elon Musk has said he's just trying to grab
a small percentage of a trillion-dollar-a-year telecommunications industry
around the world. If SpaceX can pull this off, the company could net about$30
to $50 billion a year.
Narrator:
Musk and SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said that much money could
single-handedly fund the development of Starlink, Starship, and SpaceX's
Mars-launch infrastructure. As of early October, SpaceX has launched more
than700 satellites into orbit, with a plan to release a total of 12,000 over the
next five years, half of them by the end of 2024.
And Musk wants to add another 30,000 to that,
coming to a total of 42,000satellites circling Earth. All of these satellites
will also be much closer, anywhere from 200 to 400 miles above the planet in low-Earth
orbit. Mosher: This reduces the connection delay that is found with traditional
internet satellites. Narrator:
Once in
orbit, these Starlink satellites will be constantly on the move, which is why
so many are necessary. Mosher: The problem is you have to have many satellites
orbiting to make up for the fact that you can't stay in one spot above the
Earth. Because you need several satellites overhead at any one time to cover
many users.
Narrator:
Every satellite will connect with several others via laser beams, creating
something like the network's backbone. And to bring this internet into your
home, you'll need to get a pizza-sized antenna. This phased array antenna can
aim its beam at whatever satellite is overhead, which will maintain an internet
signal in your home. But this scheme isn't without problems.
Starlink
satellites are bright. They reflect the sunlight and shine it back towards
Earth, so they end up looking like bright moving stars.
As cool as it may look, that comes with
problems. Mosher: Starlink satellites are most visible in the night sky right
before dawn and right after dusk, which is the exact time that astronomers are
hunting for near-Earth objects or asteroids, objects that could hit the earth
and possibly harm us. Narrator: And as more satellites go up, so does the
likelihood that they'll interfere with astronomers' views.
Mosher: If Star link continues to be a problem
for these types of sky surveys, we may not have as much notice as we want to
detect a near-Earth object and thwart it and prevent it from hitting Earth.
Narrator: Beyond detecting deadly asteroids, the wall of satellites could also
obstruct the search for new planets or even black holes. Mosher: SpaceX
realized it had to do something, and it did.
It
created what's called a Dark Sat, which is a satellite that has all of its
shiny parts coated in a very black, dark material. Narrator: It also tried
adding visors to shield those shiny parts from the ground. But unless the
satellites are cloaked like a spaceship in "Star Trek," technology
that does not exist, none of this will fully solve the problem.
And even if it did, there is a much bigger
issue at hand. Mosher: There's a concern about space debris because when you
have so many satellites in the closest, tightest, densest orbits around Earth,
there's a higher chance that those satellites could collide with each other or
with other satellites. Narrator: Those crashes would create clouds of debris
that can orbit the Earth for years, decades, or even centuries.
Mosher:
And that debris can then disable or cause other satellites to crash into each
other, creating even more debris, and this problem spirals out of control in an
effect called the Kessler syndrome. And if we reach that, then essentially
space is too unsafe to access. Narrator: To be clear, the risk of a runaway
Kessler syndrome is very low.
Mosher: But the potential impacts of that are
so high that scientists are working very hard to control such an event from
ever happening. Narrator: SpaceX has said its satellites can automatically move
out of the way to avoid collisions. But dozens of SpaceX satellites are already
disabled and can't move at all, posing a potential threat.
And those concerned with SpaceX's plans are
lobbying the FCC to rein in the company and more strictly regulate low-Earth
orbit. And that could make it more expensive and harder to deploy the planned
42,000 satellites. But it doesn't stop at Star link.
Amazon's Kuiper project, One Web, China's
Hongyan, and other projects are looking to challenge SpaceX by launching their
global networks of hundreds or thousands of satellites.
If they all got their way with little to no
regulation, we could end up with 100,000 satellites encasing our planet within
the next 10 years, dramatically increasing the risk of blocking off space for
everyone.
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