Obsidian Sync 2024-10-25 18:13:42

content/daily-notes/2024-10-25.md

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+#### Starlink
+> Using satellites to provide internet access is not a new idea. Such firms as Hughes, SES and ViaSat already offer exactly this service, bouncing signals from subscribers back down to ground stations and on to the wider internet. But they rely on small numbers of satellites mostly in high orbit. That allows a single satellite to see a large portion of Earth’s surface and thus to serve many customers at once.
+>
+> Unfortunately, flying so high also means that signals take a noticeable amount of time to get up to the satellite and back down to Earth. That makes remote working, video calls and online gaming a pain. And having lots of people share one satellite risks congestion. For that reason, says Mr Potter, satellite internet has been seen as a last-resort option, useful only when nothing better is available.
+>
+> Starlink’s satellites fly in very low orbits, around 500km up. That slashes transmission delays, allowing Starlink to offer a connection similar to ground-based broadband. The trade-off is that each satellite can serve only a small area of Earth. To achieve worldwide coverage you therefore need an awful lot of satellites. According to Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, the 6,400 or so Starlink satellites launched since 2019 account for around three-quarters of all the active satellites in space (see chart 3). SpaceX has firm plans to deploy 12,000 satellites, and has applied to launch as many as 42,000.
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