After Sending A Car To Mars, Elon Musk Now Wants To Build A Satellite-Based Internet For Earth
16 February, 2018
Is Elon Musk an eccentric genius or a modern day visionary? Maybe a bit of both? After successfully launching the world's most powerful rocket in the world, one would've expected Elon Musk to kickback and take it easy for awhile. No chance.
The SpaceX founder is already on the verge of launching a fully satellite-based broadband Internet service that beams down to every inch of our planet. Imagine no more dead zones or network dropouts!
Almost all of the Internet currently is enabled through giant cables that span the world's oceans and help connect everyone online. What Elon Musk wants to launch is a fully satellite-based Internet service with minimum broadband-level speeds.
To realize this insane dream, Elon Musk is prepared to launch 4,425 satellites in the earth's orbit, so it can realistically beam down Internet services to every single inch of our planet.
Doesn't matter whether you're in the middle of the Sahara desert, thousands of miles away from land in the Pacific Ocean, standing on top of Mount Everest or skiing down on Antarctica's white slopes, Elon Musk wants to deliver high-speed, high-quality satellite-based Internet services to you anywhere on the planet.
SpaceX
From dream to reality
What's interesting is earlier this week, the US Federal Communications Commission -- a government body that decides and regulates phone and internet framework in that country -- endorsed SpaceX's ambitious satellite-driven "space based broadband business" proposal. None other than FCC Chairman (& US net neutrality killer) Ajit Pai got behind Elon Musk's plan to "unleash the power of satellite constellations to provide high-speed Internet."
According to SpaceX, this satellite-based Internet service could be especially useful for those living in rural parts of US (and the rest of the world), where broadband access is either severely limited or non-existent. Google's Project Loon and Facebook's Aquila solar-powered drone are similar attempts to beam down Internet from the sky, although Elon Musk's 4000+ satellite plan currently seems the most concrete towards this end.
Satellites in space
Later next week, SpaceX is going to launch two test satellites to start building this space-based communication grid. Seeing how indispensable the Internet is becoming in the 21st century, let's hope good Elon Musk's satellite-based Internet service reaches the promised land.