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if you happen to be stargazing around the spring of 2019 you may have noticed a string
of lights worming their way across the night sky what appeared to be a possible alien invasion
was actually the next step in human connectivity fronted by elon musk's company spacex their goal
with this endeavor to provide high-speed low-latency internet to the furthest
reaches of the planet using an innovative satellite constellation known as starlink
the internet has allowed those with access to share ideas life events and even begin
global movements for change surprisingly as of 2020 nearly half the world still lacks
access to the world wide web in response to this gap musk proposed in january 2015 to
develop an interlinking communications satellite constellation with the goal of providing fast
reliable internet to every person on the planet named after the john green young adult novel
the fault in our stars the starlink satellite constellation is simply the latest in innovative
breakthroughs by spacex in 2018 spacex launched its first two test satellites 1010a and 1010b
a year later they deployed 60 satellites from the falcon 9 rocket by june of that year spacex had
successfully communicated with all 60 satellites losing contact with only three on october 21st
2019 musk even sent out a tweet using the communications link between the satellites
since the first launch spacex had sent several batches of satellites into orbit
aiming to deploy around 1 500 and provide internet services by late 2020 or early 2021
at the time of this video approximately 420 starlink satellites are in orbit
eventually musk hopes to have upwards of 30 000 of these satellites orbiting the earth
but why internet via satellite and what if anything makes starlink satellites so special
starlink satellites differ from traditional internet satellites in a number of ways first
startling satellites are lighter and more compact than traditional communication satellites weighing
about 500 pounds or kilograms they feature only a single flat foldable solar panel minimizing
volume and making the most of falcon 9's launch capability the satellites also feature four
phased array antennas that allow huge amounts of throughput to be transmitted and redirected
in a short period of time for a substantially lower cost the satellite navigation systems are
built in-house and can help regulate altitude while enabling precision placement of broadband
throughput finally starling satellites are the first spacecraft ever to use krypton powered ion
thrusters which are significantly less expensive than typical chemical thrusters these thrusters
help reposition the satellites when in orbit and help deorbit the satellite once they have
reached the end of their useful life being both cost effective and innovative starlink
will revolutionize internet connectivity current internet relies on fiber optic cables which while
efficient over long distances are ineffective in many places on the planet satellites on the other
hand can beam information to any location through the vacuum of space faster than
cables but even traditional satellites have their limitations and they involve the service provider
sending a signal to an orbiting satellite then triangulating the signal back down to a receiver
current internet satellites orbit around 35 000 kilometers above the earth which allows
for incredible coverage but creates huge delays in sending and receiving signals startling satellites
travel significantly closer to the earth at about 550 kilometers above the earth's surface
a signal is still sent from the provider to one satellite but from there the signal gets passed
to one of four adjacent satellites it then bounces along the chain at the speed of light
until it finds the optimal satellite to reach the receiver ensuring pinpoint accuracy at any
location on earth but that's not all starlink will not only deliver internet with greater accuracy
it will also send signals at much faster speeds while this distance allows for less coverage per
satellite it ensures significantly faster speeds spacex projects initial latency speeds of between
25 and 35 milliseconds fast enough for most tasks such as gaming download speeds are also expected
to be incredibly fast at about one gigabit per second current huesnet satellites offer download
speeds up to 25 megabits per second with latency speeds of about 600 milliseconds while these
figures are speculative beta testing with the us air force called global lightning saw download
speeds of 610 megabits per second suggesting that these figures may indeed prove possible however
while a constellation of low orbiting satellites may mean faster farther reaching and more reliable
internet there are some with growing concerns about the potential risk starlink may pose
while many stargazers reveled at the site of the initial 60 satellites orbiting in line
researchers saw a bright red flag astronomers who rely on clear sky views fear that the reflections
of thousands of low orbiting satellites may obstruct their scopes and camera lenses and
compromise their data others worry that startling satellites may pose a threat to spacecraft sharing
orbital space on september 3rd 2019 the esa had to perform collision avoidance maneuvers to prevent
one of its satellites from crashing into starlink 44 which was orbiting lower than usual in order to
practice deorbiting techniques one final concern is that of space pollution as of this video
only 9 000 satellites have ever been launched in history spacex plans to launch tens of thousands
of these satellites while the company currently has a solid track record with their equipment
it seems only a matter of time before something big goes wrong many were that the vast number
of satellites in these mega constellations will inevitably lead to more space litter
fortunately spacex already implements measures to reduce many of these issues
and is currently experimenting with more in order to avoid potential problems
to help reduce space pollution starling satellites have onboard propulsion to deorbit themselves over
the course of several months if the propulsion systems fail the satellites are designed to
naturally burn up in earth's atmosphere within one to five years significantly less than the
hundreds or even thousands of years required for spacecraft at higher altitudes in response
to concerned researchers spacex has proposed a few solutions first must has stated that as
more and more starling satellites are placed they will be able to move further away from earth
thus reducing visibility in addition the january 2020 batch of satellites included one called dark
sat which was painted with an experimental black coating intended to reduce brightness
finally starlink is on the leading edge of debris mitigation meeting or exceeding all
regulatory standards spacex has already utilized input from organizations and space agencies to
mitigate collision risk such as the u.s department of defense debris tracking system which performs
autonomous evasive maneuvers reducing human error and providing reliable collision avoidance before
we get back to the video let's take a moment and talk about our sponsor today audible a recent
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is without setbacks but spacex has proven time and time again that it is willing to learn
just as it is unwilling to yield or surrender while starlink is designed to improve life here on
earth its applications reach far beyond the here and now spacex plans to use the revenue generated
from starlink to fund future mars expeditions and they even plan to create a similar satellite
constellation around the red planet itself with starlink as with all current projects spacex will
bring greater connectivity and possibly even unity to our species through imagination and innovation
so that is the story of starlink when i read this story and we wrote the script
i was absolutely amazed at how close these satellites are to earth and how they're able
to achieve those incredible performance numbers if you've ever done any kind of gaming or you know
about internet speed tests and things like that you know how important that latency is that's how
long it takes between a signal that you send and you getting it back and and back and forth
so with a traditional satellite like the hues net satellites that travel in geosynchronous orbit
30 000 miles away those can have latencies of almost a second and here with starlink
we're talking 25 to 35 milliseconds which is as fast as any fiber or broadband internet that
anybody has here on earth truly game changing stuff and what i love is that the internet has
fundamentally changed how people do business imagine us with this youtube channel this would
not have been possible for the internet and yet here we are now and just imagine how many more
billions of people might have a shot now with starlink because the reality is
how long would it take for us to run fiber optics and coaxial cables to every home on earth that
just might not be possible but now with starlink you can beam your signal to satellites around the
globe and have internet from almost anywhere i was on a road trip recently and winding through
the mountains we had no coverage and i realized if i had starlink i would have been connected so i am
really looking forward to it as soon as they do beta testing or anything else i'd love to sign up
uh elon if you're watching this thing uh sign me up i'd love to be a beta tester but that wraps
it up for us here that is the story of starlink what do you guys think what was surprising to you
did you like our 3d animations and graphics and stuff just let us know in the comments and as
always don't forget to subscribe and join us on patreon if you want to be a rockstar supporter
of the show i'm ricky with tuba davinci and we'll catch you guys on the next one
so
you