The satellite constellation Starlink

 Starlink satellites 

Recently, many people saw a trail of light flying through the sky. This cosmic wonder seems to be manmade. The following image that we see is nothing other than SpaceX's latest project, the "Starlink."

Starlink is the largest satellite constellation in earth’s lower orbit, used for fast internet connections.

Starlink is a massive project of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. It aims at providing speedy internet even to places where fiber optic cables and other devices aren’t accessible, one can even access the internet even in Antarctica with the help of Starlink. As of March 2023, there are 3,660 Starlink satellites in orbit and SpaceX plans on sending at least 12,000 satellites in the constellation (they do plan on sending more, ie. around 42,000 satellites in the Starlink constellation). This vast constellation of satellites is to provide 47% faster internet than fiber optic cables.

Starlink has an operational altitude of only 550 km above the earth while other geostationary satellites are placed at an altitude of 35,000 km thus this less distance makes communication quicker than other geostationary satellites.

Around 40-60 satellites are launched at a time, and for a few days after launch, they remain visible to the naked eye in the form of a train of light. Many people had mistaken the satellite train for an alien spaceship sighting as well. 

Starlink has an advanced collision avoidance system to effectively act when encountering risks exceeding safe thresholds. And even with all the advanced technology, Starlink internet may not be more expensive than regular internet plans and setting up Starlink at home isn’t too difficult either.

Even with all these benefits, Starlink is facing some problems that they are planning to solve :-

• Since only a specific number of Starlink satellites will be present on a location, areas with higher populations (most cities) might face the problem of slow internet speed (slower than places of low population), as when a huge number of people would use same bandwidth, the speed is bound to be slower. 
• Starlink needs a clear view of the sky to receive uninterrupted internet, so depending on the location, the speed and efficiency will vary. So Starlink would definitely be a good option for rural areas, but in urban areas, the use of Starlink may still be debatable.
• There are some concerns with the increasing space debris due to the increase in satellites, and that itself may cause some trouble in our future missions to launch satellites, space stations, or even humans out of earth.
• The increasing satellite count may even interfere with ground-based astronomical studies, but SpaceX is working hard to find a solution.

With the already increased light and air pollution in our cities, the night sky have already been destroyed, but now satellites are a reason for concern too. The satellites may be brighter than the stars and other celestial objects that one can see with the naked eye, thereby ruining ground-based observations and making it difficult to obtain clear and accurate data. To address problems as such, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the establishment of a brand new centre to protect our starry skies, called the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. 

SpaceX is working to solve this problem. But still this question daunts us: Does technological development have to mean the destruction of nature? This is an important thing, and we, as the future leaders of the world, have to consider it. We NEED to look for developmental ideas that are also sustainable.