SpaceX Starlink Satellites Plummet 200km

Summary

The video discusses SpaceX's plan to lower Starlink satellites' orbit by 200 km to enhance service quality, reduce latency, and improve speed. The move could lead to higher atmospheric drag, necessitating more fuel or shorter satellite lifespans. Despite potential drawbacks, such as increased satellite speed reducing coverage area, the benefits include lower latency, faster speeds, and better support for real-time applications, aligning with Elon Musk's vision for Starlink.

Takeaways

• 🚀 SpaceX is seeking FCC approval to lower the orbit of some Starlink satellites by 200 km to improve service quality.
• 📡 Lowering the satellites will result in lower latency and faster speeds, potentially achieving sub-20 milliseconds latency.
• 🛰️ The reduced altitude will increase atmospheric drag, which may shorten the satellites' lifespan and require more fuel or more frequent replacements.
• 🌐 To maintain the same ground coverage, approximately 200 additional satellites would need to be launched for the United States alone.
• 🌍 The change in altitude will affect the satellites' speed and coverage area, with satellites moving faster and covering a smaller area on the ground.
• 📈 SpaceX aims to enhance space sustainability and service quality for consumers, enterprises, and first responders with this move.
• 🚀 The second-generation Starlink satellites have performed better than expected, including during launch and early orbit operations.
• 🛰️ SpaceX's Starship spacecraft will enable the company to deploy about 200 satellites at a time, a significant increase from the current 20.
• 🌟 The upcoming version 3 satellites, or Maxis, are expected to provide 4 times the capacity of the current satellites.
• 🌐 The improvements are expected to make Starlink a more competitive option compared to traditional internet service providers.

Q & A

What is SpaceX requesting from the FCC regarding Starlink satellites?

SpaceX is requesting regulatory clearance from the FCC to orbit some second-generation Starlink satellites about 200 km closer to Earth, in the 340 to 360 km range.

What are the potential benefits of lowering the satellites' orbit?

Lowering the satellites' orbit could result in higher quality, lower latency satellite service, which is beneficial for real-time applications such as remote work, distance education, telehealth, and emergency response.

How does the change in altitude affect the satellites' speed and coverage?

A lower altitude increases the satellites' speed, which in turn reduces the coverage area on the ground. More satellites would be needed to maintain the same coverage as at a higher altitude.

What is the current latency of Starlink and what is Elon Musk's goal for it?

The current latency of Starlink is between 28 to 40 milliseconds, and Elon Musk's goal is to reduce it to sub 20 milliseconds.

How might the increased atmospheric drag at a lower altitude affect the satellites?

Increased atmospheric drag at a lower altitude would require more fuel to maintain the satellites' orbit for the same duration, potentially shortening their lifespan.

What is the significance of the Chinese Starlink copycat, Starnet?

Starnet, China's version of Starlink, plans to have a large number of satellites, which could potentially interfere with Starlink's satellites if they were to reverse their signal direction.

How many additional satellites would be needed to maintain coverage if the orbit is lowered to 330 km?

To maintain the same ground coverage, approximately 200 additional satellites would be needed in the United States alone.

What is SpaceX's plan for deploying more satellites with Starship?

SpaceX plans to use Starship to deploy approximately 200 satellites into orbit at a time, which is a significant increase from the current 20 satellites per launch.

What is the expected capacity increase with the new version 3 satellites?

The new version 3 satellites, or Maxis, are expected to provide about 4 times the capacity of the current Starlink satellites.

What is the impact of the changes on existing Starlink users and future customers?

Existing and future Starlink users can expect improved service quality with lower latency and faster speeds, potentially making Starlink a more competitive option for high-speed internet.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 SpaceX Starlink Satellites' Lower Orbit

This paragraph discusses SpaceX's request to the FCC to lower the orbit of some Starlink satellites by 200 km to improve speed and service quality. The video host plans to delve into the implications of this move, including the potential for lower latency and faster speeds, as well as the need for additional satellites to maintain coverage due to the increased speed and reduced coverage area at the lower altitude.

05:00

🛰️ Second Generation Starlink Satellites

The host talks about the performance of SpaceX's second generation satellites, which have exceeded expectations, and the upcoming version 2 Maxis and version 3 satellites. The discussion includes the potential impact of Chinese Starlink copycat, Starnet, and its planned satellite placement. The benefits of lower latency and faster speeds are highlighted, along with the challenges of increased atmospheric drag and the need for more satellites to compensate for the reduced coverage area at lower altitudes.

10:02

🌍 Implications of Lowering Satellite Orbit

This section explores the implications of lowering the satellites' orbit, including the need for additional fuel to maintain the satellites' lifespan and the increased speed of the satellites, which results in a smaller coverage area. The host uses the analogy of a magnifying glass to explain how the satellites' closer proximity to Earth will tighten the coverage beam, requiring more satellites to achieve the same coverage as at higher altitudes.

15:04

🎮 Improved Starlink Experience

The final paragraph focuses on the positive outcomes of the orbital changes, such as achieving Elon Musk's vision of sub 20-millisecond latency, which would significantly improve the experience for users, particularly in gaming. The host also mentions the potential for SpaceX's Starship to deploy a large number of satellites at once, and the upcoming version 3 satellites that will provide four times the capacity,预示着 a significant improvement in service quality.

Keywords

💡Starlink satellites

Starlink satellites are a network of thousands of small satellites launched by SpaceX, designed to provide global internet coverage. In the video, the discussion revolves around these satellites being placed 200 km lower in orbit to improve service quality. This change is expected to enhance speed and reduce latency, which are crucial for real-time applications and services.

💡FCC (Federal Communications Commission)

The FCC is the United States government agency responsible for regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. In the context of the video, SpaceX has filed a request with the FCC to operate second-generation Starlink satellites at a lower orbit, which requires regulatory approval.

💡Latency

Latency refers to the delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer. In the context of internet connectivity, lower latency is desirable as it means data can be transmitted and received more quickly, improving the user experience for activities like gaming, video conferencing, and remote work.

💡Atmospheric drag

Atmospheric drag, also known as atmospheric resistance, is the force exerted by the Earth's atmosphere on objects moving through it. This force increases with the object's velocity and the density of the atmosphere. In the video, it is mentioned that lowering the satellites' orbit would result in increased atmospheric drag, which could affect the satellites' lifespan and require more fuel for orbital maintenance.

💡Orbital shell

An orbital shell refers to a specific range of altitudes where satellites are placed in orbit around the Earth. Different types of satellites, such as communication, weather, or navigation satellites, are placed in different orbital shells based on their intended function and lifespan. In the video, SpaceX is looking to open up a lower orbital shell for Starlink satellites to improve service.

💡Space sustainability

Space sustainability refers to the responsible use of space resources and the minimization of space debris to ensure the long-term viability of space activities. This includes designing satellites with end-of-life disposal plans and managing the orbital environment to prevent collisions and debris accumulation.

💡Real-time applications

Real-time applications are those that require immediate or near-instantaneous processing and response times. This includes video streaming, online gaming, and telemedicine, where delays can significantly impact the user experience. The video emphasizes the importance of lower latency for supporting these applications.

💡Signal strength

Signal strength is a measure of the power level of a transmitted signal, which determines the quality and reliability of communication. In the context of satellite internet, a stronger signal results in faster data transfer speeds and better connection quality. The video discusses how lowering the satellites' orbit will result in stronger signals and improved service.

💡Starship

Starship is SpaceX's next-generation spacecraft designed for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It is also intended to serve as the vehicle for launching large numbers of Starlink satellites into orbit. The video mentions the use of Starship to deploy satellites, which would significantly increase the rate at which Starlink can expand its network.

💡Version 3 satellites

Version 3 satellites, also referred to as Maxis, are the next iteration of Starlink satellites that are expected to have significantly improved capabilities, including increased capacity and performance. These advanced satellites are part of SpaceX's plan to enhance the Starlink network and provide better service to users.

Highlights

SpaceX is requesting to orbit second-generation Starlink satellites at a lower altitude of 340 km to 360 km.

Lowering the satellites' altitude aims to improve speed and reduce latency for Starlink users.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) previously approved SpaceX to operate 7,500 second-generation satellites at 525-530-535 km altitude.

Operating at lower altitudes will enable SpaceX to provide higher quality, lower latency satellite service.

Lower altitude satellites will experience increased atmospheric drag, potentially reducing their lifespan.

To maintain coverage, SpaceX may need to launch additional satellites if they lower the operational altitude.

The second-generation satellites have performed better than expected, including during launch and early orbit phase.

The upcoming version 2 Maxis and version 3 satellites are expected to provide significantly more capacity.

Elon Musk's vision is to achieve sub 20-millisecond latency with Starlink.

Lowering the satellites will result in a tighter coverage area, requiring more satellites for the same ground coverage.

The speed of the satellites will increase at lower altitudes, which could affect the coverage area and the need for additional satellites.

The Chinese Starnet project plans to place satellites at a similar lower altitude of 330 km.

The video discusses the potential impact of SpaceX's request on current and future Starlink users.

The video includes a mathematical explanation of how lowering satellite altitude affects coverage and latency.

The video provides an analogy of a magnifying glass to explain the effect of satellite altitude on coverage area.

The video concludes that SpaceX's changes will result in improved service for Starlink users.

Transcripts

SpaceX starlink satellites plummet 200

km why it's a good question let's talk

about

[Music]

it hey everybody welcome back to the

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talking Tech talking photo talking video

today is a technology day we're going to

be talking about SpaceX starlinks

satellites pluming 200 km well they're

not really falling out of the sky 200 km

but they're going to be placed 200 km

lower if the FCC allows them to do so so

I want to talk a little bit about this

what are the ramifications for this PC

Magazine had a little article on this I

want to read some of that to you first

and then I want to dive then dig in a

little bit deeper do some mathematics

some

calculus and uh give you some of my

thoughts on it how this is going to help

us or anyone that has starlink or that

will be getting starlink in the future

so before we dive in of course there's

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those guys are awesome so let's jump

right into this article it says the

company is requesting to orbit some

second generation Starling satellites in

the 340 km to 360 km range according to

the FCC filing

I was reading it was more like

328 kilm to like 360 somewhere right

around there let's call it like 330 I

don't know right around there to boost

starlink speed SpaceX is asking for

regulatory clearance to orbit some

satellites about 200 km 124 miles closer

to Earth this is very important I'll get

into that in just a second on Tuesday

the company filed a letter with the

Federal Communications Commission or the

FCC about operating some second

generation starlink satellites between

the 340 to 360 km if approved SpaceX

promises quote improve space

sustainability and enhance the quality

of service for consumers Enterprises and

First Responders moreover operating at

these lower altitudes will enable SpaceX

to provide higher quality lower latency

satellite service for customers keeping

Pace with the growing demand of real

time applications to support remote work

distant Education telea Health and

emergency response the company added in

December 2022 the FCC gave SpaceX

clearance to operate

7,500 second generation satellites along

525 530 and

535 km altitude or within the same

region as the first generation

satellites basically you're going to

keep them in the same area let's say 520

to like 550 km they're going to stay

there that's what their approval was as

of 2022 they're asking for an additional

approval here to lower these satellites

or additional satellites by 200 km once

again that is a really big deal the

article finalizes with this still the

company's earlier plans also proposed

operating some second generation

satellites at the 340 to 360 km range

now they bring up this nice little chart

here and as you can see there's two

configurations you have configuration

one and configuration two now the only

thing that really changes here is

there's slight altitude differences but

also the inclination of these satellites

also changed like for example the 530 km

they are changing from that 33

inclination or degrees to 38° so the

positioning in the sky anyways we could

dig deeper into inclination and what it

is all about in another video but we're

not going to do it in this one the

company is now pressing the FCC to open

up the lower orbital shell to starlink

SpaceX is proud to report that the

second generation satellites have

performed even better than expected

including during the launch and early

orbit phase of their operations where

atmospheric drag on the satellites is at

a maximum so they did well let's say

these second generation satellites that

are up there version 2 minis let's call

them now remember the version 2 Maxis

will be coming

soon once Starship doesn't blow up and

goes around the planet a few dozen times

and they end up doing all their testing

then finally we're going to see a lot

more satellites the bigger satellites

the Maxis or we can call them the

version 3 satellites what's very

interesting about this is last year I

did a video and I talked about the

Chinese copycat of of SpaceX starlink

and I think they called it

starnet I'm not joking starnet so

starnet supposed to have 13,000

satellites and then another portion of

them another 12 or 10 thou let's call it

let's say 25,000 satellites in totality

okay which will be a duplicate of Elon

Musk SpaceX starlink or so they are

trying to do but what was very

interesting is the location where they

were going to place the satellites now

once again I talked about this about 6

months ago or 8 months ago or whatever

what's interesting is the Chinese said

that they were going to place these

satellites at about 330

kilm sound familiar right not where Elon

Musk was at about 530 km right at 330

and a lot of you guys wrote in and said

well God if they put 25,000 satellites

below Elon Musk satellites are they

going to interfere with Elon on mus

satellites and the answer to that is no

from 200 km away those satellites would

be like the grain of sand okay so it's

not going to interfere but that being

said if they reverse their

signal not conspiracy here if they

reversed their signal and started

pointing that signal upward instead of

downward at the planet they could

interfere not that they would ever do

that they wouldn't do that that's just

that's just craziness right stop talking

F craziness Joe anyways getting into

this whole closer satellites and why

does it matter and what are the

positives and negatives what are the

benefits now let me give you the

positives first number one the first

positive would be of course you're going

to get lower latency your signal is

coming from a location that's closer to

you just like your cell phone tower for

example if you're closer to the cell

phone tower you're going to get a

greater signal okay same thing holds

true with space or with satellites as

they get closer closer the signal gets

better the same thing happens with

hughet and viac right the signal is not

so good because they're so far away

36,000 km in comparison to currently 530

km so we're going to see lower latency

now this is important because Elon Musk

said that he wanted to get latency down

to sub 20

milliseconds the only way to do that is

to get the satellites closer or reduce

some of the latency that is happening

from all of the hops on the ground that

is from the ground station to the pop or

the point of presence back to the

satellites back down back to the ground

so on and so forth okay you could reduce

that side of things but the easier way

to do it is just lower the satellites

very simple so if he was able to get the

latency to sub 20 milliseconds he would

be like on par with the cable company

getting close to fiber that would be

amazing absolutely amazing just think

about huset and ViaSat they're sitting

at about 6 7 8 800

milliseconds 6 7 800 milliseconds

sometimes 1,000 milliseconds th000

milliseconds is 1 second that's the

amount of latency that's why no one

wants it anymore because you have

starlink sitting with 20 30 40

milliseconds of latency my personal

latency is anywhere from about 28 to

about 40 that's what I have currently I

want to see it better but with these

satellites traveling lower the latency

is going to get better and I do believe

that he will be able to get sub 20

milliseconds now besides Ides the lower

latency we're also going to get faster

speeds why because we have a stronger

connection and we're all looking for

faster speeds right now not everything

is Rosy here there's always a negative

to every positive because there has to

be balance in the universe if there

isn't a balance eventually the universe

will find a balance we know that anyways

so one of the negatives is there's going

to be an increase of atmospheric drag

now the only way to fix that is you're

going to have have to add fuel into the

units into the satellites to be able to

keep them there for the same amount of

time so for example if you needed 10 lbs

of fuel let's say to keep a satellite in

orbit for 5 years if that orbit changes

from 530 km down to 330 km greater drag

you're going to end up needing maybe

double the amount of fuel so maybe you

need 20 lounds of fuel to keep it there

for 5 years so space s is going to have

to do one or two things either add fuel

to the satellites or not add Fuel and

just understand that the lifespan of

these satellites is going to be reduced

so instead of let's say a 5-year

lifespan you might get three years

lifespan and then they will burn up in

the atmosphere and they will be replaced

chances are at a three-year cycle these

things will be outdated after 3 years

anyways it probably doesn't matter I

seriously doubt they're going to add

extra fuel they will just simply

understand that there's going to be a

shorter

lifespan hence they'll just put more

satellites up there I don't think that

will be a problem for SpaceX now another

downside is that these satellites will

be moving at a faster speed I've told

you guys about this in the past the

satellites are moving in about let's say

177,000 mil hour what is it 27 26,000 km

whatever do the math well from 530 km

down to 330 km 200 k km closer the speed

would increase H let's say approximately

5 600 mph so they'll be traveling let's

call it

17,500

milph much faster right what does that

do well that reduces the coverage area

on the ground why is that well the

satellites are flying by quicker they're

only overhead for a shorter period of

time does that make sense so let's just

do some math here if there was for

example 5,500 satellites in totality and

in the US there is let's say 550 nodes

all right well you would have to add

nodes or you would have to add

satellites well how many satellites

would you have to add if you do the math

you end up with about adding 200

satellites just to equate to the same

amount of ground coverage at that closer

distance you get it I think it's about

196 satellites to be exact estimated

let's call it 200 so to recap bringing

satellites from 530 km down to 330 km

you would need 200 extra satellites to

provide the same amount of coverage on

the

ground Mak sense bear in mind that's

just for the United States the United

States is what 2% of the entire world so

you can imagine there's going to be a

lot more satellites that would be

required to be able to provide the exact

same amount of coverage at that lower

altitude that makes sense right look at

it this way this is another I think a

good way to look at it think of it a

magnifying glass right some people are

like you're closer why are you getting a

smaller amount of people a small amount

of coverage think of a magnifying glass

when you're a kid right you take the

magnifying glass and you're trying to

burn an

ant you're trying to burn an ant okay

well if you take that magnifying glass

and you move it closer and closer to the

ant the beam gets Tighter and Tighter

and Tighter and Tighter until finally

it's on fire the ant the ant's getting a

lot of data faster data quicker much

quicker lower latency right but then if

you take that magnifying glass and move

it away from the ant the beam becomes

wider or it dissipates right and the Ant

doesn't catch on fire and you end up

with higher latency you get lower speeds

you follow me so we want to burn The Ant

and the only way to burn the ant is to

get that magnifying glass or the

satellites closer to Earth does it make

sense but in so doing you're tightening

up that cone that instance where it is

striking the planet and that's why you

need more satellites to be able to

strike

everywhere you get

that anyways guys I know this kind of

went down a little bit of a rabbit hole

but I just want to get you just to think

about what is happening here and how

important it is how important it is for

us starlink users and possibly starlink

users that are coming to us in the

future people that are looking at

Starling and saying hey is it getting

better is it getting worse the bottom

line here is it's going to get better

not only is it going to get better

because SpaceX is going to be able to

use Starship to put approximately like

200 satellites into orbit at a time

instead of 20 a full order of magnitude

more number one but then also those

satellites are going to be the Maxi

satellites or the version 3s that are

going to provide like 4X the amount of

capacity so it's just going to be X

exponentially better all right that's

number one number two by lowering the

satellites closer to Earth we're going

to get lower latency we're going to see

Elon musk's vision of sub 20

milliseconds latency and then you and I

that play first-person shooters we won't

be dead all the time and not even know

it because someone killed DUS is they're

playing on a fiber connection with one

milliseconds and we're sitting there at

45 milliseconds we got shot and we

didn't even know

it and the guy on fiber is like did that

guy even see me coming around the corner

and the guy on SpaceX said no I didn't

see

you and the guy on uset or viaat is

like were you there like a second ago I

don't

know just dump hughet and viat they're

going out of business if you guys know

it or not they won't be there very long

I've said this many many times anyways I

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