Elon Musk's new series of space satellites launched into orbit has doubled the number of satellites of the Starlink Internet project. While skeptics talk about the danger of littering space above the Earth, Musk’s competitors are also developing their ideas - Project Kuiper by Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg’s own projects and the international network OneWeb, which promises space Internet in 2021. The head of Roskomsvoboda, Artem Kozlyuk, explains how the space Internet will work, what risks it will pose for society and states, and how its appearance will affect Internet freedom.
How it works
In November, Elon Musk's space company SpaceX launched a new batch of near-Earth satellites as part of a project to create cheap and fast satellite Internet - Starlink. Like last time, 60 satellites went into orbit - now there are 122, including two test ones. In total, it is planned to launch about 42 thousand satellites in different orbits with altitudes from 238 to 580 km: in October it became known that SpaceX submitted applications to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy 30 thousand additional Starlink satellites.
So far, satellite launches of the space Internet system have been successful. Looking at the footage of the landing of the first stage of Falcon 9, which for the fourth time successfully landed on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean with the romantic name Of Course I Still Love You (“Of Course I Still Love You”), one cannot help but experience a partly childish, partly scientific delight.
It’s surprising that back in 2015 the project was only in development, in 2018 satellite prototypes were created, and today we see how Musk’s new global idea is being implemented, going beyond the established paradigm. Swiftness and playing outside the rules in a good way are the main trump cards of the famous entrepreneur and engineer. His projects, of course, are criticized, among other things, for hype or the disproportion of the invested efforts relative to the result. But the search for something new and non-standard always means mistakes and criticism from the outside. And, of course, competitors.
Why is it not so simple with the space Internet?
One of the main arguments against so many satellites near the Earth is a sharp surge in “space debris.” In addition to the understandable and obvious man-made contamination, which is increasing due to unforeseen collisions of man-made objects already flying in near-Earth orbits and their fragments, scientists fear that SpaceX satellites, due to their brightness, may outshine the stars. If this happens, astronomers will not be able to observe the Universe from Earth.
“If there are many, many bright moving objects in the sky, it makes our work extremely difficult. This potentially threatens the very science of astronomy,” astronomer James Lowenthal told The New York Times.
According to estimates by the European Space Agency (ESA), 42 thousand satellites from Starlink are 8 times more than the current number of all satellites in orbit. A series of catastrophic impacts could turn near-Earth space into a minefield of debris. In the worst case scenario, a spiral debris disaster could trap humanity on Earth, making it impossible to launch new spacecraft. How do you like this scenario?
In a worst-case scenario, a spiral debris disaster could trap humanity on Earth
Starlink engineers are trying to solve the problems in a variety of ways: making plans to move satellites to higher orbits, promising to paint their satellites black on the sides facing Earth, making them less reflective, and even planning to disable them in advance by sending them into the Earth's atmosphere after a few years of operation so that all their parts burn completely in it. Whether they will succeed in all this, time will tell. But besides this, Starlink also needs to keep an eye on its competitors, primarily OneWeb, Athena from Facebook and Project Kuiper from Amazon.
Competitors
Facebook has its own program for distributing the Internet using ultra-high-altitude drones, which is constantly being transformed. Latest information it dates back to early 2019, when it became known that Facebook had begun cooperation with Airbus as part of the Zephyr project. At the same time, there is information about Mark Zuckerberg’s space project. Facebook Corporation in 2018 created a subsidiary, PointView Tech, which is working on the Athena satellite, capable of delivering data 10 times faster than Starlink. There are few details about that project - it seems that it is still at the preliminary approval stage.
Project Kuiper is the youngest of the satellite megaprojects. But, knowing the capabilities of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, no less ambitious than Musk, you can bet on rapid acceleration. Moreover, Bezos has his own aerospace company Blue Origin, which is developing its own space rocket, New Glenn. Blue Origin has already signed contracts for a multi-launch agreement with Telesat, another company that develops satellites in low Earth orbit to provide broadband services around the world. Amazon's satellites will be located in orbits similar to Starlink: 590 km, 610 km and 630 km. The project plans to deploy 3,236 satellites.
Currently, Amazon has 146 vacancies open within the Kuiper project, which indicates the seriousness of its intentions and very specific goals. Amazon is in active correspondence with the FCC regarding registration of its satellite system.
In turn, OneWeb is an international space project to create a constellation of a large number of satellites to provide broadband access to Internet users around the world by fully covering the Earth's surface. The satellites will be in orbits of 800 and 950 km. Investors in the OneWeb project are such well-known companies as Airbus Group, Intelsat, Qualcomm Incorporated, The Coca-Cola Company, etc. The OneWeb website promises that the provision of global Internet services will begin in 2021. For this purpose, hundreds of microsatellites will be launched into orbit.
OneWeb declared its main mission to be the construction of a global communications network to provide communications to the half of the planet's population that does not have it. Russian companies are also participating in the project. In 2015, Roscosmos signed a contract with the OneWeb project to launch satellites using 21 Soyuz launch vehicles. The satellites will be launched in 2019–2021 from the Baikonur (Kazakhstan), Vostochny (Russia) and Kourou (French Guiana) cosmodromes. The contract amount is one billion dollars. In February of this year, Roscosmos reported that the Soyuz-ST-B launch vehicle was launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana, which delivered the first satellites for the OneWeb project into orbit.
How will it work in Russia
Roscosmos’ participation in OneWeb might not have happened. A year ago, the FSB opposed the deployment of a foreign project over Russian territory satellite communications. As Vladimir Sadovnikov, a representative of the Russian intelligence service, said at the time, the OneWeb system poses a threat to national security and can be used for reconnaissance.
Apparently, there is a struggle over where exactly the ground stations will be located to cover Russian territory with satellite Internet. Obviously, the FSB wants the stations to be located in Russia, and not on the territory of neighboring countries. In case of refusal, I don’t rule out that Russian special services will try to somehow “jam” the signal of satellite Internet distributions, but this is a non-trivial task, I don’t think that Russia is ready to launch such a fight on a full scale, especially in the coming year. We have no way of knowing about this yet - these are all secret budgets, in principle it is unknown whether they have already been formed or not. We also do not know how the reception and transmission of Internet traffic from end consumers will occur. The most obvious method of reception is satellite dish in one form or another, or maybe “space projects” will come up with some more portable receiving modules. With the transfer, the question is also open and more complex. Perhaps there will be a combined option using existing networks, or maybe these projects will come up with some domesticated transmission devices before base stations. I have not yet seen such details of network construction.
Russian intelligence services may try to “jam” the signal of satellite Internet distributions, but this is a non-trivial task
Intelligence agencies, of course, would like to have control over them, forcing OneWeb, Starlink and others to interact directly, otherwise citizens' communications via satellite network will escape their scrutiny. But for now this is a problem even for the regular Internet. It’s not that SORM worked “with a bang” for us, “upgraded” to the “Yarovaya package” (SORM - “System technical means to ensure the functions of operational investigative activities"). According to numerous evidence from the operator market, not all Internet providers can, in principle, be approached by a “comrade major” with a demand to provide a channel to the console of the local FSB branch. And those “boxes” that are there are not a fact that they work, and were not just installed “for show” as part of the development of funds by offices affiliated with the secret service that make money from installing SORM hardware.
At the same time, the third generation systems “Yarovaya+” are also long-term construction with certification problems. Even with their full implementation, the problem of reading encrypted traffic remains: three years ago, the share of HTTPS traffic on the Internet exceeded 50%. Even if the FSB has access to all user traffic, it will be like searching for a needle in a haystack, which in itself is ephemeral.
Legal issues
There is still no clear explanation from all of the listed satellite projects on what conditions and according to what scheme users should connect to the space Internet. It’s not even clear which of them will be commercial projects that take money from consumers, and which ones will be from conditionally free access. For example, we do not directly pay satellite companies for the use of GPS and GLONASS, but we pay for gadgets with a module included there. Will these projects be developed with the participation of states or will there be a direct connection with users? We will most likely receive answers to all these questions closer to the start of operation of these systems - in a year or two.
Whether one of the satellite systems for worldwide Internet distribution will end up under state control in Russia is also an open question. But if similar projects of Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and others have ground stations on the territory of the Russian Federation, this will show that interaction with Russian intelligence services has begun, but in what phase - we are unlikely to be able to find out, unless there are leaks from within.
Therefore, when communicating on the Internet, first of all, you need to rely on yourself, increasing your security and using services that make it confidential and hidden from prying eyes. Fortunately, there are now many such tools and they have a small entry threshold.
Well, there will be a cosmic Internet! The right to access the Internet is becoming one of the basic human rights in digital age, and without satellites this cannot be fully achieved.
Artem Kozlyuk - head of the public organization "RosKomSvoboda », member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications
The weight of the cargo was a record
Sixty satellites created as part of SpaceX's Starlink project were successfully delivered into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, marking a new step towards creating a network that provides people around the world with affordable access to high-speed Internet.
Starlink is a low-orbit satellite system project whose development began in 2015. The first step towards realizing these goals was the launch of the Tintin-A and Tintin-B test satellites in February last year. This time, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle delivered 60 satellites into orbit at once - the “payload” amounted to a record 18.5 tons for the company.
The launch took place at 22:30 US East Coast time or 05:30 Friday Moscow time. All of them were successfully delivered into orbit. Some time later, American entrepreneur Elon Musk wrote on his Twitter page that the satellites were online, and the deployment of a solar array was expected in the near future.
All 60 Starlink satellites online, solar array deployment coming up soon
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2019
However, for the successful implementation of the project, according to calculations by company employees, it is necessary to launch two hundred times more satellites into orbit - it is planned that their total number will be about twelve thousand, and the weight of each will reach from 100 to 500 kilograms.
According to the project, approximately three and a half thousand satellites operating in the Ku- and Ka-bands will be located in 83 orbital planes at an altitude of 1,110 to 1,325 kilometers, and the remaining seven and a half thousand will operate at an altitude of 335 to 346 kilometers. Permanent access access to the Internet should be ensured due to the fact that at every single moment in time there is at least one satellite over any point on the planet, and if it goes beyond the horizon, then another one immediately appears from behind the horizon.
The launch of the satellite into space marked a new era and became a breakthrough in the field of technology and astronautics. The need to create a satellite was determined at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, from the very beginning, there were many problems on the way to launching a satellite into outer space, which the best engineers and scientists worked on. These problems were associated with the need to create engines that could operate in the most difficult conditions and at the same time, they must be unusually powerful. Problems were also associated with the correct determination of the satellite’s trajectory.
So, Soviet scientists solved the assigned problems, and on October 4, 1957, an artificial satellite was successfully launched in the USSR, the movement of which was watched by the whole world. This event became a global breakthrough and marked a new stage, both in science as a whole and throughout the world.
Live broadcast of the Soyuz-Progress launch (mission to the ISS)
Problems solved by satellite
The tasks solved by launching a satellite can be defined as the following:
1. Study of climate;
Everyone knows the impact climate has on agriculture, military infrastructure. Thanks to satellites, it is possible to predict the appearance of destructive elements and avoid a large number of victims.
2. Study of meteorites;
There are a huge number of meteorites in outer space, the weight of which reaches several thousand tons. Meteorites can pose a danger not only to satellites and spacecraft, but also to people. If during the passage of a meteorite the frictional force is small, then the unburned part can reach the Earth. The speed range of meteorites reaches from 1220 m/sec to 61000 m/sec.
3. Application of television broadcasting;
Currently, the role of television is great. In 1962, the first television broadcaster was launched, thanks to which the world for the first time saw video footage across the Atlantic within a few minutes.
4. GPS system.
GPS plays a huge role in almost every area of our lives. GPS is divided into civil and military. It represents electromagnetic signals emitted in the radio wave part of the spectrum by an antenna installed on each of the satellites. It consists of 24 satellites that are in orbit at an altitude of 20,200 km. The orbital time around the Earth is 12 hours.
Telecommunications satellite “Arabsat-5B”
Launch of Soyuz
Launching satellites and putting them into orbit
To begin with, it is important to designate the satellite’s flight path. At first glance, it seems that it is more logical to launch the rocket perpendicularly (at the shortest distance to the target), however, this type of launch turns out to be unprofitable, both from an engineering point of view and from an economic one. A satellite launched vertically is affected by the Earth's gravitational forces, which significantly move it away from the designated trajectory, and the traction force becomes equal to the Earth's gravity.
To avoid the satellite falling, it is first launched vertically so that it can overcome the elastic layers of the atmosphere; such a flight continues for only 20 km. Next, the satellite, using the autopilot, tilts and moves horizontally towards orbit.
In addition, the engineers' task is to calculate the flight path in such a way that the speed spent on overcoming atmospheric layers, as well as fuel consumption, is only a few percent of the characteristic speed.
It is also important in which direction to launch the satellite. When a rocket is launched in the direction of the Earth's rotation, there is an increase in speed, which depends on the location of the launch. For example, at the equator it is maximum and amounts to 403 m/s.
Satellite orbits are either circular or elliptical. The orbit will be elliptical if the rocket speed is higher than the peripheral speed. The point located in the closest position is called perigee, and the most distant one is called apogee.
The launch of the rocket with the satellite itself is carried out in several stages. When the first stage engine stops operating, the launch vehicle tilt angle will be 45 degrees, at an altitude of 58 km, then it will be separated. The second stage engines are switched on, with an increasing angle of inclination. Further, the second stage separates at an altitude of 225 km. Then, by inertia, the rocket reaches an altitude of 480 km and ends up at a point located at a distance of 1125 km from the launch. Then the third stage engines begin to operate.
Returning the satellite to earth
The return of the satellite to Earth is accompanied by some problems associated with braking. Braking can be done in two ways:
- Thanks to atmospheric resistance. The speed of a satellite entering the upper atmosphere will decrease, but due to its aerodynamic shape it will ricochet back into outer space. After this, the satellite will reduce its speed and enter deeper into the atmosphere. This will happen several times. After reducing the speed, the satellite will descend using retractable wings.
- Automatic rocket engine. The rocket engine must be directed in the direction opposite to the movement artificial satellite. Plus this method is that the braking speed can be adjusted.
Conclusion
So, satellites have entered human life in just half a century. Their participation helps explore new outer spaces. A satellite, as a means of uninterrupted communication, helps make people’s daily lives more convenient. Paving the way into outer space, they help make our lives what they are now.
In 2020, the Large Synoptic Telescope (LSST) will open in Chile, a flagship observatory that will be able to take unprecedentedly clear images of the night sky and search for asteroids that are potentially dangerous to the Earth. The project took five years to build and costs $1.3 billion - but it may be rendered virtually useless due to light pollution from several thousand Internet distribution satellites from SpaceX, Amazon, OneWeb and other companies. If there are currently about 5 thousand devices in low-Earth orbit, then with the launch of satellites from the three listed companies their number will increase to 52 thousand - that is, more than 10 times. This will make astronomical observations almost impossible, because Musk's communications satellites will illuminate the entire night sky. Hi-Tech tells what astronomers think about the launch of so many satellites (spoiler - they are very unhappy), how companies are trying to find a common language with them, and what types of observations will be hit hardest by light pollution from the devices.
What are these projects - SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb?
In 2015, the head of the company, Elon Musk, announced plans to launch a global project to distribute Starlink satellite Internet. In May 2019, the company launched 60 satellites into orbit - they became the first of a group of almost 12 thousand devices that will be located in low-Earth orbit.
Launch of Starlink satellites
The satellites will occupy altitudes from 349 to 1,190 km, and the Internet distributed from them will work 40 times faster than any operator on Earth.
In October, SpaceX received permission from the International Telecommunication Union and the US Federal Communications Commission to launch another 30 thousand satellites - thus, the total number of devices planned for launch increased to 42 thousand. By the end of 2019 alone, Starlink plans to launch 720 satellites into orbit.
SpaceX satellites
Each satellite weighs approximately 225 kg and is powered by a solar panel. The devices will communicate with each other via optical and radio communications, and will be controlled through a user terminal on Earth. The devices are equipped with a collision avoidance system, and after completing their service life they will almost completely burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
OneWeb also plans to launch satellites into orbit to distribute the Internet - according to the company's plans, 700 devices will be in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 800 to 950 km above the Earth's surface. The satellites were developed by Airbus - each of them weighs 147 kg, is equipped with two solar panels and a plasma propulsion system. Six satellites have already been launched into orbit in February 2019, and another 30 will be launched before the end of the year.
OneWeb satellite
The third major project in this area is Kuiper from Amazon. It involves launching 3,236 satellites into low-Earth orbit: 784 satellites will be located at an altitude of 590 km above the Earth's surface, 1,296 will rise to 610 km, and the remaining 1,156 satellites will be located at 630 km.
Amazon satellites should provide Internet coverage in the latitude range from 56° north latitude to 56° south latitude. More than 95% of the planet's population lives in this territory. At the same time, the company has not yet launched a single satellite - all devices are at the design stage.
There are so many satellites in orbit - how will new ones interfere?
At a minimum, there will be a lot of new satellites. There are now about 5 thousand devices in low Earth orbit - if SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb launch all the promised satellites, their total number will reach 52 thousand, that is, it will increase more than tenfold.
Each satellite has a brightness - for Starlink devices this indicator was initially estimated at two magnitudes (that is, slightly less than the brightness of the polar star). Then astronomers clarified the estimate - the devices will glow by 5-7 magnitudes.
Light pollution from Starlink satellites
In addition to constantly emitting light, satellites can occasionally “flare up” - with Iridium satellites this happens when sunlight hits their batteries. At these moments, objects observed from Earth will be as bright as Venus or Jupiter. In other words, when the flares occur, the Starlink satellites will be visible to the naked eye from locations with low light pollution.
University of Michigan astronomy professor Patrick Seitzer estimates that the moons will be brightest at twilight, making it difficult to observe potentially dangerous asteroids and other objects in the solar system that are best visible at that time.
Another problem is that for communication and Internet distribution, satellites will use radio frequencies close to those used by astronomers when making observations using ground-based radio telescopes. Interference that may occur during observations will greatly complicate scientific work, and in some cases render it useless.
Who exactly will satellites interfere with?
Astronomers' main concerns are related to the operation of the Large Synoptic Telescope (LSST). Scientists associated with the project have created a model of the light pollution that the launch of 50,000 satellites will create over the next 10 years. The study found that every image captured by the telescope would be spoiled by at least one bright streak created by the satellite. Every second picture will show streaks from three or four devices.
LSST telescope project
Construction of the Large Synoptic Telescope has been underway on the top of Mount Cero Pachon in Chile since 2015. The observatory was built according to the Paul-Baker scheme - an eight-meter mirror will allow observations with a diameter of 3.5 degrees and an area of 9.6 square degrees. By comparison, the Sun and Moon as seen from Earth have a diameter of 0.5 degrees and an area of 0.2 square degrees.
The telescope will search for traces of dark matter and dark energy, mapping small bodies solar system, searching for asteroids potentially dangerous to the Earth, as well as creating a detailed map of the Milky Way.
LSST will suffer more from light pollution than other ground-based telescopes, since its mission is to observe the entire night sky several times a week. In one step, the observatory takes a picture of a square of about 40 moons in the night sky - over 30 years of observations, astronomers expect to cover an area of 40 billion moons.
During the study, scientists from the telescope mission used image processing to try to remove a streak already left in the image by one of the SpaceX satellites - this took a month. If you spend so much time retouching images, there will be no time left for scientific research, the authors of the work conclude.
Satellite flare streaks in a night sky image
The vast majority of ground-based telescopes will also suffer from a large number of satellites in low-Earth orbit - primarily the largest FAST radio telescope. The fact is that observations in the radio spectrum are carried out at long waves - they are also used for satellite communications.
How are companies reacting?
So far, only the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has responded to the astronomers’ claims - he promised that the company will try to make the details of the satellites darker in order to reduce their reflective properties.
The company added that it shares information about the position of its satellites in the US military catalog and is in discussions with astronomers around the world to assess the consequences and mitigation strategies. SpaceX is ready to change the orbits of satellites to avoid them flying over observation areas, the company said in a statement.
However, astronomers believe that these measures are unlikely to help - primarily due to glare on solar powered satellites. However, the US Scientific Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) is currently developing an agreement with SpaceX that will likely balance the interests of science and the telecommunications project.
Other companies, such as OneWeb, Amazon, Samsung and TeleSat, are not yet engaged in dialogue with the scientific community.
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