Elon Musk’s Space Internet Plan Is Moving Forward

In yet another episode of ‘ What crazy melodic theme is Elon Musk trying to break up the world with this week ? , ’ the billionaire ’s space caller hasofficiallyrequested FCC permission to begin examine satellite for what could become a orb - traverse internet .

Rumors of said spacenetbegan to shed light on this preceding January , whenBusinessweekpublished a report outline SpaceX ’s plan to breed every human being in a splendiferous mantle of high - speed WLAN . Basically , Musk need to employ a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to flash a configuration of diminished satellites into low Earth orbit that ’ll beam signal to the far corners of the major planet . The quad cyberspace would finally pick up a decent glob of web traffic in urban and suburban region , in addition to bringing trillion of net - less people into the digital old age .

That , at least , is the plan . And with the Modern FCC filing — which would allow SpaceX to test the antennae on its satellites and determine if they ’re currently strong enough to direct signal down to Earth — it ’s one that the Musk seems to have a vested interest in pushing forwards . If the FCC permits it , SpaceX could begin launching psychometric test satellite as early as next year . And if all goes well , the service could be up and running in as few as five .

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But . There ’s one large return here that SpaceX seems to be skirt , and that ’s the Leontyne Price tag for the whole shebang . Deploying satellites nearer to domicile create good horse sense from a speed perspective — it cuts down on response time , the time delay government issue that make traditional satellite internet ( which involves much heavy planet place much higher above the planet ) vexingly tardily compared with fibre eye connections . But there ’s a trade-off — the signal from low - revolve satellites wo n’t be capable to cover virtually as much of the satellite . So , you ’ll need a slew of artificial satellite . Four thousand , according to Musk ’s latest math .

AsWired discusses this week , constructing and deploying four thousand satellite , even into downhearted Earth orbit , could end up being very , very expensive . Indeed , aBill Gates - backed effort to create a low Earth orbit space cyberspace in the 90s folded when costs billow out of control . And when you ’re talking about create a service that ’s accessible to sept in developing countries , it goes without enjoin that it ’s choke to have to be dirt brassy .

We ’ll just have to wait and see if SpaceX can hack it . At this point , anyone that can offer me the petite sliver of Bob Hope for a Comcast - free future has my benediction . Godspeed , Elon .

Dji Drone