Science
SpaceX's 'UFO on a stick' may turn Starlink customers into key assets – Business Insider
- In 2020, SpaceX plans to launch 60 Starlink satellites every two weeks, ostensibly to create a functional global internet service by the end of the year.
- Customers would connect to Starlink using what Musk described on Tuesday as a device that looks like a „UFO on a stick“ and only needs to be plugged in and pointed skyward.
- Computer scientist Mark Handley previously calculated that Starlink can beat fiber-optic cables, in terms of round trip travel time for user data. However, that was before SpaceX said a key satellite-to-satellite laser technology wouldn’t be ready to launch until the end of 2020.
- But Handley thinks SpaceX will use the „UFO“ terminals as ground stations – a scheme that could be nearly as fast as laser links, and even faster than lasers alone when used in combination.
- This suggests Starlink subscribers could become critical parts of a global, high-speed, and resilient mesh network instead of just end users.
- Sign up for Business Insider’s transportation newsletter, Shifting Gears, to get more stories like this in your inbox.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
SpaceX is racing to launch about 1,400 satellites this year and boot up Starlink, a planet-wide, ultra-high-speed internet service. The rocket company, founded by Elon Musk, may ultimately send up 12,000 or even 42,000 in the coming decade.
To that end, SpaceX on Monday launched a pallet of 60 freshly redesigned Starlink satellites on Monday – adding to 120 experimental spacecraft already in orbit – and plans to pull off similar launches every two weeks.
With anticipation building over Starlink’s debut, company founder Elon Musk explained how future subscribers will connect to the service using a device called a phased-array antenna, which he said in 2015 should cost around $200 each. (Though some industry analysts say such devices today cost about 10 times as much.)
„Looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick. Starlink Terminal has motors to self-adjust optimal angle to view sky,“ Musk tweeted, adding that all a user has to do is plug it in and point it upward. „These instructions work in either order. No training required.“
What Musk did not say is how, exactly, early adopters will actually send and receive data – whether it’s information about financial markets halfway around the world, or streaming video of „The Bachelor“ on a Hulu server farm – using satellites moving around Earth at 17,000 mph, and in a dizzying variety of paths called orbital planes.
But Mark Handley, a computer science professor at University College London, posted a YouTube video on December 20 that models the Starlink network and makes some educated guesses. Handley said he used recent documents from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and statements from both Musk and Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, to arrive at his conclusions.
If Handley’s latest guesswork is correct, each of Musk’s „UFO on a stick“ terminals that users pay to handle their own data could be a secret weapon that helps Starlink get data for countless other subscribers to and from its destination – and do so at speeds that handily beat fiber-optic cables. (SpaceX did not respond to Business Insider’s queries on the matter.)
„This is the most exciting new network we’ve seen in a long time,“ he previously told Business Insider. He added that the project could affect the lives of „potentially everybody.“
Here’s how Handley thinks Starlink might work this year and going forward.
Musk has said grabbing just 1-3% of the global telecommunications market through Starlink could pocket SpaceX tens of billions per year in revenue — much more than it may ever make launching rockets.
Foto: SpaceX founder Elon Musk.sourceDave Mosher/Insider
dSpaceX can launch 60 roughly desk-size, 500-pound satellites at a time into space within the nosecone of its Falcon 9 rocket system.
Foto: SpaceX stuffed a fleet of 60 Starlink internet-providing satellites into the nosecone of a Falcon 9 rocket for launch in May 2019.sourceElon Musk/SpaceX via Twitter
Source: Business Insider
In early 2019, Musk said it will take about 400 satellites to establish „minor“ internet coverage and 800 satellites for „moderate“ or „significant operational“ coverage. The immediate major goal is to deploy about 1,500 satellites about 340 miles (550 kilometers) high.
Foto: An illustration of SpaceX’s planned Starlink satellite orbits around Earth.sourceSpaceX
The internet, in its simplest form, is a series of connected computers. How and where the computers are connected makes a significant difference to many users, though. SpaceX’s gambit with Starlink is make access faster and more widespread, yet less laggy and expensive.
Foto: A router connecting multiple computers to the internet via cables.sourceAssociated Press
A lot of our data is sent in pulses of light through fiber-optic cables. More packets of information can go farther with a stronger signal that way than they could via electrical signals sent through metal wires.
Foto: Fiber-optic cabling.sourceShutterstock
Source: Business Insider
But fiber is fairly expensive and tedious to lay, especially between locations on opposite sides of the Earth.
Foto: Reeltender Mo Laussie watches fiber-optic cable as he helps install the cable unto telephone poles June 21, 2001 in Louisville, CO.sourceMichael Smith/Getty
Even within a country, achieving a direct wired path from one location to another is rare. Relying on ground cables also leaves many regions poorly connected.
Foto: sourceBusiness Insider
Cables have a speed limit, too: Light moves through the vacuum of space about 47% faster than it can through solid fiber-optic glass.
Foto: A prism bends and splits up white light into a rainbow of colors because the speed of light is slower in glass than it is in air.sourceShutterstock
Source: Florida State University
This isn’t an issue for normal browsing or watching TV. But over international distances, Handley previously said, it leads to high latency, or lag. The time delay is especially pronounced in long-distance videoconferencing and voice calls made over the web.
Foto: The president speaks with children over a video conference.sourceCarolyn Kaster/AP
Data beamed over existing satellites is some of the laggiest. That’s because nearly all those spacecraft orbit from 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) up, where they can „float“ above one location on Earth. That’s enough distance to cause a more than half-second of lag.
Foto: An illustration of two different geostationary satellites, which orbit about 22,300 miles above Earth’s surface.sourceNASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio; Business Insider
Source: University College London
Handley said that latency matters most to financial institutions. With markets that move billions of dollars in fractions of a second, any delay can lead to big losses over a competitor with a less laggy (and thus more up-to-date) connection to the web.
Foto: High-frequency-trading companies will try almost any new technology to learn about market changes before a competitor.sourceReuters / Brendan McDermid
Shuttling data around the world via satellite — and mostly through the vacuum of space, not glass — should cut that lag while also providing screaming-fast internet service almost anywhere on Earth.
Foto: An illustration of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet constellation in orbit around Earth.sourceSpaceX
Source: Business Insider
SpaceX deploys each flat-packed stack of 60 satellites by very slowly rotating it in microgravity, causing it to spread like „a deck of cards on a table,“ Musk said in 2019.
Foto:
Source: Business Insider
From there, the satellites will use Hall thrusters (or ion engines) to rise to an altitude of about 342 miles (550 kilometers). This will be about 65 times closer to Earth than geostationary satellites — and that much less laggy.
Foto: A 13-kilowatt Hall thruster, or ion engine, being tested at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.sourceNASA
Final Starlink spacecraft will link to four others using lasers. No other internet-providing satellites do this, Handley said, and it’s what would make them special: They can beam data over Earth’s surface at nearly the speed of light, bypassing the limitations of fiber-optics.
Foto: An illustration of Starlink, a fleet or constellation of internet-providing satellites designed by SpaceX. This image shows how each satellite connects to four others with laser beams.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: University College London
But for now, none of the Starlink satellites have laser beams. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, told reporters in October that laser interlinks won’t be working until late 2020 at the soonest.
Foto: Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, in 2017.sourceDia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Source: CNN
Until then, Musk says the company will link them via ground stations. A handful of sizable yet steerable antennas that can track satellites will be used to „talk“ to the satellites.
Foto: Satellite tracking antennas in South Texas.sourceDave Mosher/Business Insider
There are also small user terminals for the customers to connect — the ones Musk he said look like „a UFO on a stick“ or, previously, „a sort of a small- to medium-size pizza.“ (Though he or SpaceX has yet to show a picture of one.)
Foto: Rows of pizza boxes.sourceShutterstock
Source: FCC
That’s small enough to add to a home. „There’s also no reason one of these couldn’t be flat and thin enough to put on the roof of a car,“ Handley said.
Foto: A Tesla Model Y electric car.sourceTesla
Musk said Starlink terminals would also easily fit on ships, airplanes, and other mobile devices, enabling these vehicles to have better broadband connections than what’s available today.
Foto: sourceNAN728/Shutterstock
Musk said just 1,000 satellites are required „for the system to be economically viable.“ He noted that’s „obviously a lot of satellites, but it’s way less than 10,000 or 12,000.“
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
But according to SpaceX’s FCC filings, the company expects to operate 1 million ground stations. Handley thinks the small terminals will not just download and upload one user’s data, but also act as critical nodes before the laser links are ready — turning customers into a kind of global mesh network.
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: FCC
Handley and others previously assumed SpaceX would only use lasers because they took the most direct (and fastest) path through space. But Handley’s new analysis of Starlink’s network suggests turning customers into relays would make the network even faster and more resilient.
Foto: An illustration of Starlink, a fleet or constellation of internet-providing satellites designed by SpaceX. This image shows the shortest path in the network between New York and London.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Without lasers, data could get to and from computers around the world through Starlink by bouncing from satellite to user terminal to satellite and so on in a light-speed daisy-chain.
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Handley calculated this would significantly beat the speed of the current internet, and even an ideal one made entirely of uninterrupted fiber-optic cable.
Foto: sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
And as more users sign up and plug in their UFO-like terminals, Starlink satellites overhead may have more options for building optimal paths to transmit data.
Foto: An illustration of SpaceX’s constellation of thousands of Starlink satellites to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
Customer terminals also solved a problem Handley previously saw with planned laser links: Due to the arrangement of the satellites in space, some connections — like London to Johannesburg — had to go out of their way, causing them to be slower than fiber-optic cables.
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
Using terminals alone made the trip much quicker, according to his model.
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
Mixing both the laser links and user terminals, though, provided the fastest of any solution to shuttle internet data to and from a location.
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
One hurdle SpaceX needs to overcome before laser links are available: Oceans. Though ground stations strategically placed on islands could close the gap. Handley suspects terminals attached to ships would still be needed.
Foto:
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
But even Handley doesn’t see too much of a problem. „Ships aren’t cheap, but they’re not cheaper than rockets. So this is probably doable,“ he said in his video.
Foto: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Starlink at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, May 23, 2019.sourceUS Air Force/1st Lt Alex Preisser
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
It might be even cheaper for SpaceX to put ground stations close to fiber-optic cables and use them to bridge the divide, at least until the lasers become available.
Foto: sourceTeleGeography
In any case, the data won’t magically know which path it should take; SpaceX will have to constantly calculate the locations of all its satellites and ground stations. But Handley said he was able to compute that in negligible with his personal computer „with a few devious tricks inspired by how game engines work.“
Foto: A computer scientist’s rendering of SpaceX’s constellation of satellites for Starlink: a scheme to provide global, high-speed, low-latency internet service.sourceMark Handley/University College London
Source: Mark Handley/University College London
Watch Handley’s complete speculative explanation about how Starlink might work below.
Foto:
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Science
'On every diver's bucket list': Video shows up-close encounter with shark in Alberni Inlet – CHEK News
A quartet of scuba divers on Vancouver Island were in for the plunge of a lifetime when coming across a shark in the depths of the Alberni Inlet.
In late May, Matteo Endrizzi and Garrett Clement got video of the encounter, calling it “incredibly rare” footage that even underwater filmmakers searching for the fish have difficulty capturing on camera.
Divemaster Endrizzi and environmental technologist Clement, both from Nanaimo, joined fellow divers Connor McTavish and Danton West when they spotted the bluntnose sixgill shark swimming in pirate movie-like atmosphere.
“We went up to do a dive trip. A change of scenery, different dive sights,” said Endrizzi. “We did a dive in the morning, and then we decided to do a deeper dive on a shipwreck that was there. We went down about 100 feet.”
That’s when Clement says one of the divers, “the guy with the least amount of experience,” started signalling that he saw something unusual.
“I go over, and he gives me the classic signal for shark,” said Clement in an interview with CHEK News.
“I remember looking at him and going, ‘Really?’ We go over, and there’s nothing there, but he’s looking around like a madman. We don’t see anything. We can’t really talk when we’re scuba diving, so we just continue on our dive.”
Ten minutes later, their underwater dive in waters near Port Alberni turned into one they’ll never forget — one they’ve summed up as a big thrill.
“We just went along the side of the shipwreck. We were just looking down, and all of a sudden, someone’s light beam caught an outline of a shark swimming along the bottom of the shipwreck,” recalled Clement.
READ ALSO: Possibly pregnant bluntnose shark washes up on Hornby Island
While Endrizzi was excited by the sight, he’s most grateful he had his camera in hand to capture video proof of what they saw before their eyes.
“Usually, these sharks live in deep, deep water at 2,500 metres,” he said.
“It’s a deep-water shark, and no one knows why they come to the shallows. There are a lot of theories, but no one really knows.
“Garrett was pretty much right on the bottom at 80 feet, and I was a few feet higher, so we got different angles of video. I’m from above, and Garrett was down below. It’s nice to have both perspectives.”
Story continues below.
When spotting a shark, other divers may be urged to ‘dip’ or swim away to safety as quickly as possible, but this group had done its research.
“It’s a pretty docile shark,” said Endrizzi. “When we saw it, we knew exactly what it was. I think we were all a little bit excited, and I say that as an understatement. We all felt very lucky to witness what we did.”
According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the sixgill shark, or Hexanchus griseus, can grow up to 4.8 metres long and has two rows of teeth.
“The shark that we saw was a juvenile, but they can be quite big animals. The coast of B.C. is one of the only places in the world where divers can actually see these sharks,” said Endrizzi.
He says the group reached out to the DFO to notify them of the encounter, which in turn was “very grateful” to receive the information considering such sightings are seldom.
“If anyone does come across one, it’s a rare occurrence, and I definitely encourage them to reach out to DFO so that data can be recorded and we can get more information on these really cool creatures,” said Endrizzi.
The DFO has more information about sharks on its website, including ongoing research from the Canadian Pacific Shark Research Lab.
“I mean, they live at the bottom of the ocean, and it’s so hard to get any sort of data on them,” added Clement. “It’s on every diver’s bucket list to be able to see one of these things in the wild, but the reality is you could go on thousands and thousands of dives and never see one.”
-with files from CHEK’s Roger Collins
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This image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068 is a composite from two of the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments, MIRI and NIRCam. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”["attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"]”>NASA’s <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”["attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"]”>James Webb Space Telescope has captured a detailed image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068. Part of a project to record star formation in nearby galaxies, this initiative provides significant insights into various astronomical fields. The telescope’s ability to see through gas and dust, typically hiding star formation processes, offers unique views into this crucial aspect of galactic evolution.
A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image – a composite from two of Webb’s instruments. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed the image on June 2 during an event with students at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw, Poland.
In this image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI instrument, the dusty structure of the spiral galaxy and glowing bubbles of gas containing newly-formed star clusters are particularly prominent. Three asteroid trails intrude into this image, represented as tiny blue-green-red dots. Asteroids appear in astronomical images such as these because they are much closer to the telescope than the distant target. As Webb captures several images of the astronomical object, the asteroid moves, so it shows up in a slightly different place in each frame. They are a little more noticeable in images such as this one from MIRI, because many stars are not as bright in mid-infrared wavelengths as they are in near-infrared or visible light, so asteroids are easier to see next to the stars. One trail lies just below the galaxy’s bar, and two more in the bottom-left corner. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
NGC 5068 lies around 20 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. This image of the central, bright star-forming regions of the galaxy is part of a campaign to create an astronomical treasure trove, a repository of observations of star formation in nearby galaxies. Previous gems from this collection can be seen here (IC 5332) and here (M74). These observations are particularly valuable to astronomers for two reasons. The first is because star formation underpins so many fields in astronomy, from the physics of the tenuous <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”["attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"]”>plasma that lies between stars to the evolution of entire galaxies. By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb.
This view of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument, is studded by the galaxy’s massive population of stars, most dense along its bright central bar, along with burning red clouds of gas illuminated by young stars within. This near-infrared image of the galaxy is filled by the enormous gathering of older stars which make up the core of NGC 5068. The keen vision of NIRCam allows astronomers to peer through the galaxy’s gas and dust to closely examine its stars. Dense and bright clouds of dust lie along the path of the spiral arms: These are H II regions, collections of hydrogen gas where new stars are forming. The young, energetic stars ionize the hydrogen around them, creating this glow represented in red. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
The second reason is that Webb’s observations build on other studies using telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories. Webb collected images of 19 nearby star-forming galaxies which astronomers could then combine with Hubble images of 10,000 star clusters, spectroscopic mapping of 20,000 star-forming emission nebulae from the <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”["attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"]”>Very Large Telescope (VLT), and observations of 12,000 dark, dense molecular clouds identified by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These observations span the electromagnetic spectrum and give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation.
With its ability to peer through the gas and dust enshrouding newborn stars, Webb is particularly well-suited to explore the processes governing star formation. Stars and planetary systems are born amongst swirling clouds of gas and dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like Hubble or the VLT. The keen vision at infrared wavelengths of two of Webb’s instruments — MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) — allowed astronomers to see right through the gargantuan clouds of dust in NGC 5068 and capture the processes of star formation as they happened. This image combines the capabilities of these two instruments, providing a truly unique look at the composition of NGC 5068.
The James Webb Space Telescope stands as the apex of space science observatories worldwide. Tasked with demystifying enigmas within our own solar system, Webb will also extend its gaze beyond, seeking to observe distant worlds orbiting other stars. In addition to this, it aims to delve into the cryptic structures and the origins of our universe, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of our position within the cosmic expanse. The Webb project is an international endeavor spearheaded by NASA, conducted in close partnership with the <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”["attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"]”>European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
Science
New image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows thousands upon thousands of stars in a galaxy 17 million light years away – Yahoo Canada Shine On
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The James Webb Space Telescope snapped a new image of a galaxy 17 million light-years away.
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Thousands upon thousands of stars are visible, many of which are concentrated in the galaxy’s heart.
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JWST is peering into the hearts of many galaxies to help scientists better understand star formation.
With the power of the James Webb Space Telescope, we can peer into the mysterious hearts of galaxies. And that’s exactly what you’re seeing here, in this new image from Webb of the galaxy NGC 5068.
NGC 5068 is located about 17 million light-years from Earth. For perspective, the Milky Way’s neighborhood of galaxies called the Local Group, is 5 million light-years away. So, this galaxy is beyond what we might consider close.
Each individual dot of white light you can see is a star, per Mashable. NASA said there are thousands upon thousands of stars in this image. And many of them are hanging out at the galaxy’s center, which you can see in the upper left as a bright bar of white light.
This region appears so bright because that’s where most of the stars are concentrated. That’s also where all the action is.
James Webb peers into the hearts of many galaxies to uncover their secrets
Most galaxies have an ultra-bright center due to warm dust that’s heated by massive bursts of star formation, according to the Harvard Smithsonian. And it’s this star formation that astronomers are interested in studying more with the help of JWST.
In fact, NGC 5068 is just one in a series of other galaxies Webb is observing for a project to help us better understand star formation. Webb has also taken images of the spiral galaxy IC 5332:
And the heart of galaxy M74, aka the “Phantom Galaxy”:
The James Webb Space Telescope has the advantage of seeing in the infrared.
Infrared wavelengths are too long for the human eye to detect. But they’re especially important for studying in space because they allow JWST to peer past obstructive visual light that would otherwise block our ability to see into the hearts of galaxies and their bustling environments of star formation.
“By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb,” NASA said.
Watch a video of NGC 5068 below:
Read the original article on Business Insider
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