Did you know that only 59% of the world population has access to internet? The internet is a great tool for all uses, learning, entertainment, exercising, (work out videos) etc. but only 4.57 billion out of the 7.8 billion people on Earth have access to it. Billionaire Elon Musk will try to change that, with a project called ‘Starlink’. This project will launch hundreds and hundreds of Satellites into space, and have them provide internet.
After launching all the satellites, there will be coverage in every corner of the Earth, but the project will be very expensive, at more than an estimated 9.8 billion dollars, and will take around 5 years. Musk says that 400 satellites will provide basic coverage, and 800 will provide moderate coverage. The satellites will offer affordable and fast internet, and He also says that the earnings might help fund a future city on mars. Satellite internet has been tried before, but due to the fact that there were very few satellites, the coverage was very slow and patchy, so it was not used.
There are many good things about the Starlink project, but there are also downsides. One downside is that after we launch all of the starlink satellites, they will hinder our ability to see the sky, which will hurt scientists and stargazers. Another downside of the project is that “The orbiting satellites can also interfere with the workings of ground-based radio telescopes that experts use to see more distant phenomena.” (Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch another 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit around the Earth tonight bringing the total number to 482) There are both pros and cons to this project, so what do you think? Is starlink really a good idea?