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NewsSpaceX says it plans to sell satellite laser links commercially (reuters.com)

submitted by Ajedi32

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[–]Ajedi32[S] 157 points158 points  (41 children)

I wonder if this is an attempt to "commoditize your complement"? If SpaceX laser links become the de-facto standard method of sat-to-sat communication it would be easy for SpaceX to offer internet service to other satellites via Starlink and become the standard high-bandwidth communications provider for LEO.

[–]jamesdickson 105 points106 points  (24 children)

I think this is exactly the play.

Slap a laser link to your satellite and you can simply access its data at massive speeds from the internet as it’s routed through starlink. You wouldn’t even have to have a starlink terminal, that is just used at some point to get the info to the ground to pass it on to you.

Starlink can then becomes the de facto data transfer system in space.

And I think this will eventually go well beyond LEO.

Moon and mars will eventually be joined up. They may put some deep space satellites (paid for by NASA) out there.

[–]Ajedi32[S] 42 points43 points  (3 children)

I love the idea that satellites could just get their own IP address and you could connect to them like literally any other server on the internet. (Realistically the firewall rules would probably be more restrictive than that, but its a fun idea to think about.)

[–]perilun 15 points16 points  (1 child)

I think this could apply for mid-sized sats. For cubesats omni-directional radio would provide good connection for less mass than laser terminals.

[–]falconzord 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Apparently LTE works well enough for Tmobile

[–]xtwinblade96 8 points9 points  (0 children)

From a person who works with satellite operations that sounds like a really bad idea. Having the connecrion to your satellite be publicly available and accessable at all times leaves it vulnerable to people with malicious intent. Publicly available data is fine for some ESA missions which provided un-encrypted downlink on a specific bandwith for anyone with an antenna to download, but uplink to satellites should only be available to the satellite operator and not the entire internet.

Image you have a small weather satellite and you get a big mission because a storm is coming, but someone is DDoS'ing the Satellite because the IP is public... bad idea.

Rather what i think SpaceX is going to supply is an extended link from Ground to Sat using Sat-2-sat laser communication, meaning you have the 'opportunity' of ground contact at almost any time. Except this requires you are connected to a ground station

[–]DBDude 68 points69 points  (18 children)

And SpaceX gets paid for every connection. Starlink is going to be even more of a money printer than I thought.

[–]TheEarthquakeGuy 23 points24 points  (16 children)

That is actually genius. Same move as Tesla with the NACS. It also supports their launch business by reducing the barrier of entry into space. I'm assuming previously you either had to buy access from an existing ground station or build your own - Now you just need a starlink terminal or ground station, both of which I'm assuming are cheaper.

It's genius

[–]Ad_Astra117 37 points38 points  (14 children)

You know, I'm really starting to question the armchair Reddit experts who continually insist that Elon is a failed businessman who only got where he is because of luck. 

[–]3trip⏬ Bellyflopping 19 points20 points  (0 children)

you should beware of any group throwing shade with consistency.

[–]DBDude 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Anything negative was his fault, anything positive was to the credit of employees who went against his orders.

[–]falconzord 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The key thing to note is that that never comes from anyone that's worked with him. Even those that wrote the manifesto against his behavior didn't question his contribution to building the business.

[–]SashimiJones -1 points0 points  (4 children)

I'm not an Elon hater; I've read liftoff and understand that he was huge in the F9 program, the idea of Starship, and the roadster. Definitely not a failure, and these definitely weren't luck.

But if you've followed SpaceX/Tesla closely for a while, I think it's obvious that he's not nearly as involved as he used to be. SpaceX's recent successes are probably a lot more attributable to Shotwell than to Musk. I'm not saying that he wasn't involved in NACS or this decision, but I haven't seen any evidence that he was, either. I miss the old Elon that would randomly drop technical details on Twitter.

[–]3trip⏬ Bellyflopping 4 points5 points  (2 children)

is he less involved? Musk admits to spending a lot of time at SpaceX. recently

[–]SashimiJones 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It's hard to say; I know he goes there a lot but he doesn't talk about development much publicly anymore. It was pretty different back in the F9 landing and early starship dev days.

[–]3trip⏬ Bellyflopping 1 point2 points  (0 children)

indeed, hard to say for sure, but of that is likely due to falcon 9 being made from lower hanging more established tech, while starship is a lot more experimental & ITAR heavy.

[–]Jaker788 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They have different roles at SpaceX. Beyond the two, there are many different high level people at SpaceX that play a role in growth and domination. I don't think Gwen is the one behind this or Elon.

Gwen as I understand still doesn't interact with principal engineers in a way that's actually above them in the chain, she's the customer facing side of SpaceX and biz dev, she has dipped in a little for oversight of site project management in Boca. They're different tracks of the company and can interact, but mostly like business development would communicate with engineering when developing a product.

When it comes to engineering decisions I wouldn't expect her to be making many if any, where Elon may not be as active today, he's still the chief engineer and has been involved to varying degrees over time in Starship development and decisions. He is directly above principle engineers in the chain and is the direct manager to them.

[–]Departure_Sea -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This may not be his idea though. Gwen is essentially the defacto leader for SpaceX and has been for some time now.

[–]skyhighskyhigh 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No Starlink terminal or ground station needed. Just the ip address for the satellite.

[–]skyhighskyhigh 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Seriously, high speed, real time access to your satellite feed. The potential here is hard to imagine.

[–]cybercuzco💥 Rapidly Disassembling 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I sent a tightbeam from callisto

[–]perilun 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Yes, and this helps with interoperability that the DoD wants.

[–]perky_python 23 points24 points  (1 child)

I’m surprised this comment is so far down. This announcement is almost certainly related to the DoD expectation of interoperability for their satellite constellation.

https://spacenews.com/starlinks-market-dominance-affecting-dods-hybrid-network-plans/

[–]geo38 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the link. This DoD requirement sure seems like what's behind SpaceX selling laser comms modules.

As Tesla overwhelmed the market their proprietary fast DC charging standard in North America which has become the winning charging standard, SpaceX has just announced they intend for their laser technology to be the standard for DoD. Every other compliant satellite will have to buy/license the technology from SpaceX.

[–]Veedrac 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The straightforward interpretation is probably the right one here: SpaceX has a better product in a high-value sector than is available elsewhere. People spend huge amounts on satellite comms.

[–]ClearlyCylindrical 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think you've hit the nail on the head there.

[–]WjU1fcN8 18 points19 points  (6 children)

SpaceX also has a policy of leveling the playing field somewhat.

Same with Tesla open sourcing all of it's patents and selling components at competitive prices to other car manufacturers.

This laser can be put into other constellations and allow them to better compete with SpaceX.

[–]rebootyourbrainstem 26 points27 points  (4 children)

Tesla standardizing its North American charging plug and allowing other manufacturers onto its charging network is the best Tesla example

[–]nickik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tesla was actually incredibly stupid not do a version of this 10 years ago. They could have still had the Supercharger network be their cars only. They should have opened far more the NACS does, do the protocols, and the implementation on both sides.

[–]Ajedi32[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

True. Given how much of the launch market SpaceX currently owns, you could certainly argue that anything that makes space more accessible is likely to grow the market and ultimately benefit SpaceX.

[–]im_thatoneguy 3 points4 points  (1 child)

The DOD has also expressed their disappointment that Starlink is incompatible with other constellations. They would prefer and will pay extra for interoperability.

[–]QVRedit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Starlink is a new standard with higher bandwidth connections.

[–]EllieVader 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NPR ran a story on Monday about SpaceX getting a contract for a space force project they’re calling “Star shield” which sounded just like starlink for orbital communications. The demonstration of HD video downlink on FT3 was a probably to secure that contract.

[–]sparkplug_23 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think this is so E can lend his satellite to V in the future ;)

[–]rademradem 22 points23 points  (7 children)

They should start by allowing NASA to add Starlink laser links to the ISS for free as a demonstration. This would give the ISS an additional high speed data network to use.

[–]buccn 27 points28 points  (2 children)

<image>

[–]Jemmerl 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Shark-to-shark communications array

[–]RobDickinson 4 points5 points  (0 children)

SharkNet

[–]rebootyourbrainstem 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This could be the end of having to worry about communications spectrum for satellites where that isn't the primary function

[–]joepublicschmoe 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Interesting to note that SpaceX has a competitor in satellite laser links: German company Mynaric, and one of their key executives is former SpaceX employee Bulan Altan, whom Eric Berger wrote about in Liftoff.

So far Mynaric is a major supplier of optical communication terminals to the U.S. DoD's Space Development Agency.

[–]nickik 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Pretty much all of SpaceX competitors are full of SpaceX people

[–]lostpatrol 22 points23 points  (1 child)

Sounds like they are taking lessons from Tesla opening up their NACS charging standard to everyone else.

[–]perthguppy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trying to kill off the competition before it even literally launches.

[–]aquarain 9 points10 points  (1 child)

6 weeks to IFT-4

[–]SkippyMcSkipster2 10 points11 points  (0 children)

"Plug and Plaser"

This is so hilariously bad, it's actually brilliant.

[–]aquarain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I wonder what's the range on these bad boys.

[–]NiCrMo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

High frequency trades via laser link coming up

[–]Orjigagd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I imagine anything they want to charge will be cheaper than managing your own downlink. From the little I know there isn't just a standard worldwide network to hook into

[–]DecronymAcronyms Explained 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
DoD US Department of Defense
ESA European Space Agency
ITAR (US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations
LEO Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)
Jargon Definition
Starlink SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation

NOTE: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented by request
5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 25 acronyms.
[Thread #12563 for this sub, first seen 19th Mar 2024, 19:32] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

[–]Crenorz -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

this is not for users. it's for telco's. this will argument / replace sea cables. Also, remeber that movie where that guy made an Internet connection in a strait line for faster stock trades - it's even faster in space to go to the other side of the planet.

[–]Your_Moms_Box -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Export control?