Throughout a gathering with the Mars Exploration Program Evaluation Group, an inner NASA working crew devoted to supporting missions to Mars included a pitch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to deploy Starlink satellites across the pink planet to create “Marslink.” Having a thick layer of satellites round Mars will surely make transmission simpler, as it will make the comms goal bigger than the planet itself and would probably velocity up intra-Mars comms when that turns into obligatory. But it surely in all probability gained’t demonstrably velocity up communication between Earth and Mars, at the very least to not the extent Elon is pitching, as a result of Mars is actually fucking distant.
The Marslink pitch consists of “a number of SpaceX satellites positioned in Mars orbit to offer full visibility and interoperability for floor and orbital belongings,” and the flexibility to “exceed” NASA’s requirement for 4 mbps switch. For reference, your common web connection within the U.S. is buzzing round 250 mpbs, and also you want round 100 mbps for dependable video streaming. Final week Elon Musk stated in certainly one of his 100-plus each day tweets that “That is only a very primary first step. Earth and Mars will in the end want higher than petabit/sec connectivity.” Petabit/second speeds are at the moment solely theoretically potential with fiberoptic cables, and we’re undoubtedly not linking Earth to Mars with fiber web.
Mars doesn’t transfer in the identical orbit across the solar, or on the similar velocity as Earth. At its closest, Mars is a mere 34 million miles away, about half the space from the Earth to the Solar. When Mars is reverse Earth in its orbit, with the Solar between them, that distance will increase to over 250 million miles. In case you may talk on the velocity of sunshine, as many laser-based satellite tv for pc transmissions can, the velocity at which you’ll be able to load something continues to be depending on the velocity of sunshine. That 250 million miles takes 22 minutes and 22 seconds for gentle (or info) to traverse. Petabit/second speeds between Mars and Earth are unattainable till we develop faster-than-light journey, which is, you already know, not potential based mostly on our present understanding of physics.
Elon Musk, once more on Twitter, advised that Starlink may create a “knowledge bridge” to hop knowledge from one satellite tv for pc to a different alongside a relay system. One follower even advised a “internet of satellites across the solar” to maintain folks in area and on different planets related to the Earth web. “An extended chain of modified future technology Starlink satellites between 1 and 1.5 AU would do it,” claims Musk. In case you don’t know, an AU (Astronomical Unit) is 93 million miles, or the common distance between the Earth and the Solar.
Right here’s the issue. Satellite tv for pc hopping doesn’t scale back the velocity at which you’ll be able to talk with a distant planet. Area continues to be area, lightspeed continues to be lightspeed, and the space doesn’t get shorter since you put a couple of satellites between right here and there. It’s potential that leaping from satellite tv for pc to satellite tv for pc may enhance the scale of the info switch, but it surely is not going to scale back latency time between Mars and Earth in any means. In reality, hopping from satellite tv for pc to satellite tv for pc will truly enhance processing time and make the entire thing slower.
Is Elon Musk going to be the one to crack faster-than-light journey and quantum entanglement? I’m going to exit on a limb right here and say I’ve my doubts. SpaceX is scheduled to deploy 5 unmanned rockets to Mars in 2026, and Elon says folks can be going to Mars by 2028. Once more, I’ve my doubts.
