SpaceX adds laser links to Starlink satellites to serve Earth's polar areas
SpaceX has begun launching Starlink satellites with laser links that will help provide broadband coverage in polar regions. As SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Sunday, these satellites "have laser links between the satellites, so no ground stations are needed over the poles."
The laser links are included in 10 Starlink satellites just launched into polar orbits. The launch came two weeks after SpaceX received Federal Communications Commission approval to launch the 10 satellites into polar orbits at an altitude of 560km.
"All sats launched next year will have laser links," Musk wrote in another tweet yesterday, indicating that the laser systems will become standard on Starlink satellites in 2022. For now, SpaceX is only including laser links on polar satellites. "Only our polar sats have lasers this year & are v0.9," Musk wrote.
Also at Wccftech.
Previously: SpaceX Successfully Launches Most Single-Mission Satellites Ever: 143 [Updates: 2]
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[2021-01-24 16:56:40 UTC: UPDATE 2]
SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket at 10:30 ET (1630 UTC). The booster -- its 5th flight -- successfully landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. All 143 of the satellites on board were released at their scheduled times. Lastly, both fairing halves were successfully caught by the recovery ships Ms Tree and Ms Chief
[2021-01-23 14:37:05 UTC: UPDATE 1]
Although SpaceX pressed ahead with fueling of the Falcon 9 booster on Saturday morning, the company scrubbed the launch attempt of the Transporter-1 mission a few minutes before the window opened due to weather. Conditions at Cape Canaveral violated the electrical field rule for a safe launch. The company now plans to try to launch again on Sunday morning, with the launch window opening at 10am ET (15:00 UTC).
Original story appears below.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pTamok on Wednesday January 27 2021, @11:28AM (5 children)
The next satellites will have sharks as well.
I'm here all week. Avoid the veal.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by esperto123 on Wednesday January 27 2021, @01:19PM
I never get tired of this joke XD
But getting laser link now is good news and means that they eventually will offer coverage far from land for planes and ships far from the coast or crossing the oceans, this I see as a really good market for them, as they can charge a good chunk of change from those, who right now have some crappy options.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 27 2021, @04:53PM
Wouldn't the sharks with lasers remain in Earth's oceans as ground stations for the satellites with lasers? The sharks with lasers would be part of a planetary network connected to ground based laser stations along coasts.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:34PM (2 children)
Where did the joke about shark-mounted lasers start? Was there a movie or a TV show or something?
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Friday January 29 2021, @10:57AM (1 child)
Urban Dictionary: sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads [urbandictionary.com]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday January 30 2021, @01:37AM
Thank you!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2021, @02:19PM
How many pointer/telescope/transceiver rigs per bird?
To save a ground station would take one.
To make ring would take two.
To make a network would take 3 or 4.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday January 27 2021, @04:57PM (2 children)
From what I see on YouTube videos, internet service there is both intermittent and low bandwidth.
Imagine a South Pole station with a Starlink dish. Or several. And at McMurdo and other locations on the continent.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 27 2021, @11:46PM (1 child)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/dkxra3/will_starlink_work_in_antarctica/f4kid9q/ [reddit.com]
Seems like this launch is a good first step.
I did a search and found this: https://satellitemap.space/ [satellitemap.space]
Nothing over the poles (look at how Antarctica is perfectly avoided) but the 10 latest ones haven't been added to the map yet. Also not added are the Starlink sats from v1.0 L16 [wikipedia.org], launched just 4 DAYS before the Transporter-1 mission.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:25PM
I would point out that Iridium covers the poles. You can get Iridium sat phone service at any point on the entire globe. Anywhere in oceans. Deserts. Mountain tops. And the poles.
But it's voice only. Need a fairly clear line of sight to sky. Very low bandwidth data (like dial up days). There is a Short Packet Burst service where you can send single packets intermittently. That service is very useful for things l like, oh, say someone who owns a fleet of semi trucks, and want to continuously know:
1. where the truck is, with GPS coordinates
2. what is the temp inside the trailer
Easy for a device to use a small Iridium board in their product to send GPS coordinates (gathered from a different GPS radio device) and other truck data in a packet a few times per hour.
Or a hiker could carry a Garmin device that has GPS and cool maps and other features, but has capability to send a single Iridium short burst data packet indicating an emergency, with hikers location, and location history, and short text message contained within the packet. Again embedding an Iridium board into the device.
Starlink will change a lot. But you need to have a dish.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious