Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have something else in common beyond the nine zeroes in their net worths: Both have the ambition to leverage space as the next frontier in providing internet service. Test 1/12
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Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have something else in common beyond the nine zeroes in their net worths: Both have the ambition to leverage space as the next frontier in providing internet service. Test 12/15
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have something else in common beyond the nine zeroes in their net worths: Both have the ambition to leverage space as the next frontier in providing internet service. Test 12/15
While building a space-based internet is not a new idea, it’s one that has taken off once again largely due to new technology and lower launch costs.
“Now with even faster computers and cheaper satellites, there is a whole lot of interest in creating a bunch of new systems to do this,” James Muncy, co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation told NBC News.
On Thursday, an Amos 6 satellite that Facebook had leased access on was destroyed in a launch pad explosion at Cape Canaveral, along with the SpaceX rocket that was set to carry it into orbit.
Facebook’s leased space on the satellite was set to serve parts of sub-Saharan Africa and was one key piece in Zuckerberg’s plan to connect the world. The other, Facebook’s internet beaming drone, Aquila, is designed to fly in the stratosphere, at the edge of space. The Amos 6 satellite would have gone into a geosynchronous orbit, putting it at about 22,000 miles away from Earth and acting as a router, allowing local entrepreneurs to sell Wi-FI to the public. Musk, an entrepreneur known for pushing the envelope with big ideas, wants a network of thousands of low cost satellites put into low Earth orbit. He said last year the plan “would be like ‘rebuilding the internet in space.’”
Hanneke Weitering, LiveScience Recommended
