Throughout a gathering with the Mars Exploration Program Evaluation Group, an inside NASA working crew devoted to supporting missions to Mars included a pitch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to deploy Starlink satellites across the purple planet to create “Marslink.” Having a thick layer of satellites round Mars will surely make transmission simpler, as it could make the comms goal bigger than the planet itself and would possible pace up intra-Mars comms when that turns into crucial. But it surely in all probability received’t demonstrably pace 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 contains “a number of SpaceX satellites positioned in Mars orbit to supply full visibility and interoperability for floor and orbital belongings,” 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 stated in one in every of his 100-plus every day tweets that “That is only a very fundamental first step. Earth and Mars will in the end want larger than petabit/sec connectivity.” Petabit/second speeds are presently solely theoretically doable with fiberoptic cables, and we’re positively not linking Earth to Mars with fiber web.
Mars doesn’t transfer in the identical orbit across the solar, or on the similar pace 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 might talk on the pace of sunshine, as many laser-based satellite tv for pc transmissions can, the pace at which you’ll be able to load something remains to be depending on the pace of sunshine. That 250 million miles takes 22 minutes and 22 seconds for mild (or data) to traverse. Petabit/second speeds between Mars and Earth are unattainable till we develop faster-than-light journey, which is, you realize, not doable primarily based on our present understanding of physics.
Elon Musk, once more on Twitter, urged that Starlink might create a “knowledge bridge” to hop knowledge from one satellite tv for pc to a different alongside a relay system. One follower even urged a “internet of satellites across the solar” to maintain individuals in house and on different planets linked to the Earth web. “A protracted chain of modified future era 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 typical distance between the Earth and the Solar.
Right here’s the issue. Satellite tv for pc hopping doesn’t cut back the pace at which you’ll be able to talk with a distant planet. Area remains to be house, lightspeed remains to be lightspeed, and the space 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 might enhance the dimensions of the information switch, however it won’t cut back latency time between Mars and Earth in any approach. In actual fact, hopping from satellite tv for pc to satellite tv for pc will really 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 individuals can be going to Mars by 2028. Once more, I’ve my doubts.
