Intro
Hello, this is homcorn from ITLover0. As we know, Tesla has been a huge era around the world. Starting from Tesla, companies start to make EVs for their cars in order to follow up the EV trend. Because of that, we see multiple electric cars on the roads, especially Tesla. Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, has a huge ambition. He wants to colonize Mars. His first step was making a company called SpaceX. However, he needed money. So, he made Tesla. We’ve all seen the news about SpaceX launching rockets and Elon going to space and all that stuff. Well, they’re not only doing that. They also have a thing called ‘Starlink’ going on. Well what is this ‘Starlink?’ Today’s post is going to be about explaining what Starlink is so that anyone who reads this post can go up to someone who is talking about Elon Musk and join their conversation about ‘Starlink’.
So what is Elon Musk trying to do?
Before I actually start explaining, let’s talk about Mr. Musk first. Elon Musk’s ultimate plan is to colonize Mars. We all know that right? All he has to do is get the money, build a spaceship, build a base at Mars that somehow has air in it, then send people right? Well, it’s not that simple. First of all, the scale of his project is enormous. It requires billions and trillions of money, along with a huge amount of resources, and a bunch of big brains around the world that can think about an efficient way to make the plan work. Plus, a fair amount of time. In order to earn the money he needs, Elon starts a business, which is Tesla. Tesla is not his main business. SpaceX is. I am going to talk more about Tesla and EVs and autopilots in further posts. Anyways, SpaceX does not only build spaceships for Mars colonization; it also sends satellites to improve “Earth experience”. One of the main products of SpaceX is the Starlink.
What is Starlink, and how do you use it?
Starlink is made to connect to the internet from anywhere around the world. If you purchase the Starlink plan from the website, they give you a router that you can place. This router is the receiver. Instead of connecting to the internet via fiber optics or such, you connect it fully wireless. The satellites in low orbit around the Earth send internet connection to the routers, and you use the routers to connect your devices to the internet. SpaceX has launched multiple rockets into space with satellites. There are about 2000 satellites that provide connection to North America, some parts of Europe, and some of other places in the world. First, you mount the antenna dish on an open place, or a place with an open ceiling. Then, you connect the cables from the dish, to the router. If you aren’t able to mount or place the antenna dish with the bundle given, you can buy different types of extra mount on the website. Then, you use an app called Starlink (obviously) and follow the instructions to connect to the internet. Starlink currently has 2 plans; normal and premium. Normal giving around 100~200Mbps maximum, while premium having a larger and better antenna dish and giving around 150~500Mbps. Starlink is targeted for people who live in a location where they don’t have access to the internet, or it is very hard to access the internet.
Ukraine and Russian war
Currently, there is a war between Ukraine and Russia. Since Ukraine is getting bombed and attacked, there is no way that they can have access to the internet. However, Starlink can help. They just have to place the antenna and the router, and access the internet. The president of Ukraine asked Elon Musk for Starlink supplies, and Elon Musk has sent multiple routers in order to help them survive the war. Elon Musk also tweeted a warning that they should be careful while using the router, since Starlink is the only non-Russian internet connector in Ukraine right now.
Conclusion
Overall, Starlink is a very useful product. It is very useful for people who live in the woods for example, and do not have connection to the internet. It also has a very reasonable price, which is very unexpected, since most of these sorts of products are very expensive. Starlink is not the first satellite internet modem. There have been multiple ideas and products like this, but Starlink is the one successful and famous one. If Starlink continues to get better and faster connections, we might start using Starlink plates, instead of underground cables. Elon Musk wanted to use Starlink as a way to connect to the internet when he colonizes Mars. He said “Our customers would want to use their iPhones and Androids even on Mars.”
Wrap up
That is the end of today’s post: What is Starlink. I hope you now know what Starlink is, and understand how it works. I am pretty sure most people reading this post right now would come from the news that says Musk gave Spacelink routers to Ukraine. That is also why I wrote this post. I hope the war ends soon, with no more casualties. Thank you for reading this post today, and I will see you on further ones. Bye!
Photos from Starlink website
sounds like great project! cool!