Space Internet is not only Musk's star chain plan, but also China's lucky plan.

In the 1990s, a woman was on vacation in the Caribbean, but her cell phone failed to get in touch with an important customer because of no signal. Women go back to complain to their husbands, and these complaints are the voices of mobile phone users in that era. Coincidentally, her husband was an engineer of Motorola, the dominant mobile phone communication company at that time. So, a grand plan to let users answer and make calls anywhere in the world? The iridium project was born.

Iridium project is expected to consist of 77 (later developed to 66) near-earth satellites, through which mobile phone signals can be transmitted, so that users can use their mobile phones at will anytime and anywhere. Because iridium has 77 electrons orbiting the nucleus, this project is vividly called iridium project.

At that time, Motorola was rich. 1990 put forward the plan, 1996 started the trial launch, 1998 put into production, with a total investment of 3.4 billion US dollars.

But this ambitious project did not bring the expected return to Motorola. On the contrary, the traditional mobile phone service has completely occupied the market by building a ground base station with faster deployment speed and lower cost to transmit signals. No user wants to use Iridium's service with high fees and poor signal. In the end, Iridium Company suffered huge losses, and even the loan interest could not be repaid. The preparation time of the trans-century iridium project is less than half a year from its official announcement to its final termination. 66 expensive satellites not found? Qualified? Buyers were forced to derail and burn in the earth's atmosphere.

In fact, there is nothing anyone can do. Faced with the high risks brought by high technology and the ruthlessness of the market, multinational giants like Motorola have to swallow this cup of bitter wine.

Times have changed, stars have changed. More than 20 years later, another technology giant, Space Exploration Technology, did the same thing, and his head was Elon, known as Iron Man in Silicon Valley. Musk.

In October, 2065438+200565438+/kloc-0, Musk announced that Space Exploration Technology Company planned to launch about 65438+20000 communication satellites into orbit. Star chain? Internet provides Internet services, allowing users all over the world to enjoy the Internet anytime and anywhere. The star chain project is expected to officially start in 2020.

The satellite chain project is similar to the iridium project, which is equivalent to laying a ground cellular network in space. The Iridium project only needs 66 satellites, and today's satellite chain plan is expected to launch tens of thousands of satellites.

Will the tragedy of iridium project repeat itself, and will the satellite chain project repeat the same mistakes?

Musk once again told the world with his super execution ability that he never backed down on his journey to the sea of stars.

From March 2065438 to March 2008, Falcon 9 rocket successfully put two experimental satellites in the Star Chain Project into orbit and conducted communication tests with the Earth.

2065438+In May 2009, Falcon 9 rocket put the first batch of 60 satellites into orbit.

In the following years, space exploration technology company carried out high-density launch with Falcon 9 rocket, sometimes even twice a month. Due to the original rocket recycling technology of Space Exploration Technology Company, the launch cost is greatly saved.

In June, 2020, Space Exploration Technology Company successfully completed the ninth launch of the Star Chain Program, and 6 1 satellite was successfully put into orbit.

If all goes well, the Internet service provided by Star Link will be put into trial operation in the northern United States and parts of Canada by the end of this year. It may be extended to the whole world next year.

China is a big Internet country, ranking first in the world only in terms of the number of netizens. Can we also use the Star Link Internet? Unfortunately, due to the policy approval and technical details, it will take at least a few years for China people to use Star Link to surf the Internet.

However, we don't have to go to the grave to fish, and the country has retired for us.

Red Cloud Project independently developed by China? Star chain project? It is estimated that 156 satellites will be launched, running in the orbit of 1000 kilometers from the ground, and efforts will be made to build a global mobile internet with broadband on board, which can provide integrated services of communication, navigation and remote sensing for all kinds of users around the world.

It is worth mentioning that this project is led by the same commercial aerospace company of American Space Exploration Technology Company. With the unremitting efforts of all the scientific researchers of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and the strong support of the Party and the state, the Hongyun experimental satellite was successfully put into the scheduled orbit by the Long March 11 carrier rocket on February 22nd, 20 18. Around 2020, Hongyun Project will be put into demonstration application. Around 2023, the constellation deployment will be completed and services will be officially provided to users around the world.