Explained | What is Starlink, the ambitious global internet service of Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur is in the news again, as he constantly is. This time, he is making news because his ‘Starlink’ is helping to provide and restore internet access in the Gaza Strip, which is currently being relentlessly bombed by Israel after Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 attack that sparked the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Like any other of his ventures, Starlink is an ambitious project that seeks to provide internet access in the remotest parts of the world. But the approach is different. So what exactly is Starlink? Read on.

The traditional approach of providing internet access to an area requires laying fiber-optic wires. This, in turn, involves infrastructure and setting up of a network that requires a physical presence on ground. Plus, all of this needs to be maintained regularly. Needless to say that such an approach becomes problematic because it may not always be possible to lay and maintain wires etc in parts of the world that are very hard to reach, like mountainous regions, deserts, remote islands and so on. But people live in such places. So how to provide internet access to these populations?

Eon Musk’s Starlink seeks to provide internet access straight from the sky. A mountainous region may be hard to reach via ground but everyone, everywhere is living under the sky right? 

So Starlink, which is operated by Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX is trying to provide internet access with the help of satellites.

Now it’s old news that satellites can be used to facilitate communication on Earth. But previously such access was extremely expensive and hence ordinary citizens could utilise the access either through governments or big corporations.

Stalink in itself is part of corporate set-up, yes but from what SpaceX and Musk have been saying, it aims to make power of satellites for everyday communication more accessible to users.

Watch | Israel-Palestine war: Elon Musk offers internet to international aid organisation

“Starlink is ideally suited for areas where connectivity has been unreliable or completely unavailable,” says Starlink on its website 

“People across the globe are using Starlink to gain access to education, health services and even communications support during natural disasters.”

Literally thousands! Starlink started launching satellites in 2019. By August this year, they have already sent more than 5000 satellites. The company plans to ultimately send 42000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Starlink has already begun providing internet service in many countries but not all. A low Earth orbit puts a satellite about 342 miles (550 kilometres) above the ground.

What’s more, the low Earth orbit means that you don’t need special equipment to see a Starlink satellite if it is passing through night sky above you. With naked eye, the satellite may appear like a star that is moving.

In case of Starlink satellites however, due to their sheer numbers, they are often visible in the night sky as a ‘train’ of stars moving in a line. This is quite a sight for those who haven’t seen such a thing before.

There are many apps that tell when exactly Starlink satellites are above you or going to be above you. You can then just look at the sky and see the ‘train’ of Starlink satellites. Stargazers around the world began reporting such trains within 60 days of launch of first satellites.

Controversies surrounding Starlink and its web of satellites

 

Since the outbreak of Russia-Ukraine war, Russian missile attacks have severely damaged infrastructure in Ukraine. This includes traditional internet network that is no longer reliable. 

Ukrainian armed forces have hence heavily relied on net connectivity facilitated by Starlink to co-ordination military movements and thwart Russian advance which, at the beginning of the war appeared unstoppable.

However, Musk admitted himself in September this year that he refused request from Ukraine to make Starlink network available in Crimean peninsula so that Ukraine can launch a major drone attack against Russian warships anchored at Sevastopol. He said on X, the social media platform he owns, that agreeing to the request would have amounted to being ‘complicit in a major act of war’.

“There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol. The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” he wrote in his post on X last year.

The situation led to debate across the world. Questions like should outcome of a conflict depend on what one private company does. and more were asked.

The other concern has been raised by astronomers. It is feared that thousands of Starlink satellites in the sky would lead to interference in astrophotography and in turn, study of space.

“Satellite constellations can pose a significant or debilitating threat to important existing and future astronomical infrastructures, and we urge their designers and deployers as well as policy-makers to work with the astronomical community in a concerted effort to analyze and understand the impact of satellite constellations,” said International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2019.

The advance of such sky-based internet services appears inevitable as many companies are entering the arena following Starlink’s success.