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 would definitely make transmission simpler, as it could make the comms goal bigger than the planet itself and would probably pace up intra-Mars comms when that turns into needed. But it surely most likely gained’t demonstrably pace up communication between Earth and Mars, a minimum of to not the extent Elon is pitching, as a result of Mars is actually fucking far-off.
The Marslink pitch contains “a number of SpaceX satellites positioned in Mars orbit to offer full visibility and interoperability for floor and orbital property,” and the power 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 mentioned in certainly one of his 100-plus every day tweets that “That is only a very primary first step. Earth and Mars will finally want higher than petabit/sec connectivity.” Petabit/second speeds are at the moment solely theoretically doable 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 identical pace as Earth. At its closest, Mars is a mere 34 million miles away, about half the gap 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. For those who may talk on the pace of sunshine, as many laser-based satellite tv for pc transmissions can, the pace at which you’ll load something remains to be depending on the pace of sunshine. That 250 million miles takes 22 minutes and 22 seconds for gentle (or data) to traverse. Petabit/second speeds between Mars and Earth are not possible till we develop faster-than-light journey, which is, you understand, not doable primarily based on our present understanding of physics.
Elon Musk, once more on Twitter, instructed 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 instructed a “internet of satellites across the solar” to maintain individuals in house and on different planets related to the Earth web. “A protracted chain of modified future era Starlink satellites between 1 and 1.5 AU would do it,” claims Musk. For those who don’t know, an AU (Astronomical Unit) is 93 million miles, or the typical distance between the Earth and the Solar.
Right here’s the issue. Satellite tv for pc hopping doesn’t scale back the pace at which you’ll talk with a distant planet. House remains to be house, lightspeed remains to be lightspeed, and the gap doesn’t get shorter since you put a couple of satellites between right here and there. It’s doable that leaping from satellite tv for pc to satellite tv for pc may improve the scale of the info switch, however it won’t scale back latency time between Mars and Earth in any approach. In reality, hopping from satellite tv for pc to satellite tv for pc will really improve 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 individuals will likely be going to Mars by 2028. Once more, I’ve my doubts.
