Elon Musk's SpaceX is installing a satellite internet constellation to
restore Tonga's internet.
Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said on Twitter, "A SpaceX team
is now in Fiji establishing a Starlink gateway station to reconnect Tonga to
the world."
The Hunga Tonga volcano's shockwave shattered Tonga's internet connection, adding days of gut-wrenching uncertainty to disaster assessments. A @SpaceX team is now in Fiji establishing a Starlink Gateway station to reconnect Tonga to the world.
— Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum (@FijiAG) February 7, 2022
Great initiative, @elonmusk!
It comes after Musk had tweeted, ''Could people from Tonga let us know if it
is important for SpaceX to send over Starlink terminals?''
Musk's dream of colonising Mars has a connection with the volcanic eruption
that devastated Tonga.
The undersea eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano was so
powerful as it sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard
some 2,300km away in New Zealand. Thousands of homes were destroyed.
Locals and survivors had described how the devastating Pacific blast "messed
up" their brains. In the aftermath, parts of the nation were covered in
ashes, communication with other countries was cut because the undersea lines
were damaged.
NASA said that the eruption unleashed explosive forces that dwarfed the
power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Tonga's sole optic-fibre link to the internet and the rest of the world was
severed by a volcanic eruption on January 15 and only limited connectivity
has been possible since.
Officials said a specialist cable repair ship was expected to arrive this
week and would take at least two weeks to fix the damage.
However, scientists are probing the eruption activities to learn and prepare
humankind for such occurrences in future with advancements in
technology.
Besides, that volcano could offer valuable clues about the formation of
other planets like Mars and Venus as it is offering researchers a rare
chance to study how water and lava interact.
Elon Musk is confident that humans will land on Mars by 2026. As he has been
an advocate of hypothetical Mars colonisation, he might have persuaded
people that human life outside Earth is possible.