STARLINKS
MISSION OF 2020
STARLINKS
March 18th is the most recent Starlinks launch. As planned, "The company has placed 362 Starlinks satellites into orbit, counting two experimental satellites launched in 2018, and nearly all of them remain in orbit" (Foust). The significance of this program is that "Starlink's satellites are meant to carry large amounts of information rapidly to any point on Earth, even over the oceans and in extremely hard-to-reach places where fiber-optic cables would be expensive to lay down" (Mann). The benefit of the Starlinks program is tremendous. Starlinks will solve the connection issue we are facing nowadays. When the internet signal suddenly disappears or when people are at a place where the electric cable can not reach, for example, desert, ocean, and mountain areas. This technology can even make the rescue easier because Starlinks can send signals from anywhere on earth (Mann).
CHALLENGE OF THE MISSION
Starlink that have already been launched into space is simply too bright. If SpaceX sends its planned 12000 Starlinks into outer space, the brightness of Starlinks will become a difficulty for astronomers to continue their experimentation (Foust). The second problem is the possibility of other spacecraft colliding into Starlinks. ESA (European Space Agency) almost collided with Starlink 44; the chance of collision is far higher than the estimated value of the possibility to collide with Starlink (Mann).
MISSION STATISTICS
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Weight of each Starlink: 500 pounds
Amount planned to launch in space: 12000
Projected internet connectivity market: 1 trillion USD (Mann)