SpaceX has continually tried to improve and evolve in recent years, and their newest satellites are even better than before. Recently they launched 143 satellites on a single rocket, so clearly the company is on a roll right now. They are actually trying to do 100 satellites per month, all of which will be a part of the SpaceX network. Granted, the speeds are pretty good now, but the more satellites they add, the more interesting the system will be and the payoff itself seems to be amazing in its own right.
With that being said, the fact that they are improving the satellites as the deployment process goes along is also pretty impressive. In this case, it seems that the new models have some interesting secrets up their sleeves. Yes, the new satellites talk to each other without any ground stations. They use fully operational laser communication systems.
The systems are great because they make it easy to expand coverage properly, all without having to deal with the ground stations to begin with. The mapping satellites are in the polar orbits. The reason why they go for the polar orbit is because they eventually pass over the entire surface of our planet. Yes, they move perpendicularly to the rotation of the Earth, which is definitely something you need to take into consideration here. With that in mind, the polar orbit also offers the advantage of boosting the overall coverage. That also means you will eventually get locations that don’t really have ground station coverage.
And that’s the reason why they added the laser communication system. By adding that, they make it easy for you to access all the benefits and quality you need, all without the use of a ground station. They need to be very creative with this kind of stuff, and that’s why it makes a lot of sense to start using these things in an appropriate manner. The truth is that even if there’s no ground support, the satellites can still have the much-needed communication on their own. It’s actually a clever approach and a powerful system that will help bring in front a great difference.
The lasers can be transferred between satellites, so they get to stay connected to the entire constellation without a problem. According to Elon Musk, the lasers have already beamed hundreds of GB of data between the nodes. So the potential is there, and the more nodes there will be, the better the results we can expect here. That’s especially true for the people in rural areas.
Adding in things like lasers to their satellites is a bold idea from SpaceX, but it does work quite well, and it’s certainly unlike anything you can find out there. It’s exciting to see how it all comes together, and how they will eventually continue to grow and expand in the long term. There will be challenges that can arise, but in the end it’s important to appreciate and respect the way SpaceX continues to innovate in a rather impressive way!
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