Previous week on Twitter, Elon addressed some major planned improvements to the
constellation of Starlink internet satellites, and the advantages Starlink
has over traditional internet connections.
Starlink internet improvements
Despite the recent lack Starlink launches, SpaceX’s satellite internet
service is continuing to roll out to customers. The first orbital shell has
long been complete, and now SpaceX is focused on v1.5 of the satellites.
These newer versions of the satellites will feature laser links, to allow
direct communication between satellites, rather than relying on ground
stations.
We saw the first launch of these satellites with this laser communication
during the launch of Transporter 1. During this launch, ten laser-equipped
Starlink satellites were deployed into a sun-synchronous orbit.
Without laser-equipped satellites, the information would immediately be
beamed back down to a ground station. This meant that despite the worldwide
coverage of the satellites, they could only be used in locations where a
satellite could simultaneously connect to a customer Starlink dish and
company ground station. These ground stations are connected over a
fiber-optic connection to the rest of the internet.
This reliance on stations adds distance for the light to travel and adds a
delay to the internet signal. Despite Starlink already offering
exceptionally low latency compared to any other satellite internet service,
Elon hopes to bring the delay even lower.
Another plus side to the interconnects is the ability to provide internet
service where there are no ground stations for hundred of miles. This means
ships and airplanes crossing oceans could see the benefit of connectivity,
once more Starlink satellites are equipped with laser interconnects.
As silly as it use to be, to consider satellite internet as an option for
high-speed competitive gamers, the service may soon be a realistic choice.
As of now, a direct fiber connection will still be faster and more reliable,
but adding more options should help break the current internet company
monopolies. Starlink also reaches many locations where direct fiber just
isn’t an option.
Falcon 9 Reuseability
We’ve addressed some of the major questions relating to Falcon 9 Reusability
before, this week Elon reinforced the difficulty of reusability. From an
outside perspective, it is easy to criticize companies like ULA for their
single use rockets, but reusability is hard.
SpaceX has been reusing boosters for years. They re-flew Falcon booster 14
times prior to Block 5. If it wasn’t until the Block 5 variant of Falcon 9
reusability made financial sense, it is more understandable for a company
with a less frequent launch schedule, like ULA, to hold off on reusability.
SpaceX is able to rely on their own Starlink launches to fill in when
customer payloads are sparse, to make the most out of the improvements to
their reuseable launch vehicle.
Tesla Autopilot improvements
There are continued updates coming to Autopilot, and Tesla customers are
impressed with the changes.
Elon continues to address the feedback, and for full self-driving, one
much-needed feature is recognition of sirens. In an emergency, it’s second
nature (for most people) to hear the sirens and move over for emergency
vehicles to get by. For a fully autonomous car, they must be able to do the
same, so microphones listening for sirens are an important addition to the
suite of cameras being able to recognize flashing lights.
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