SpaceX VisorSats

Internet connectivity has been a major topic of discussion for many decades now. Many private companies are trying to ace the race to provide the internet with the posibile fastest speed. SpaceX is an American company owned by Elon Musk has tried to be the forerunner by launching the Starlink project. The project aims to provide the internet speed up to 1 GBPS in space. The project will launch many satellites in space for different zones and each satellite will provide internet access to a distinct zone. The ‘VisorSat’ is the new initiative to block the illumination of these satellites and keep the sky dark at night. 

VisorSat

• To provide internet for each and every area distinctly, the company SpaceX will launch approximately 12000 to around 42000 satellites in space. This huge number will be suitably covering the areas around the globe to facilitate high speed of internet. This project seems pretty ambitious and profitable but it also carries environmental concerns. Many physicists and cosmologists have frowned at this project as this will be creating a large amount of debris in space and also the darkness of the area around the earth will be totally vanished due to illumination of these thousands of satellites
• Pondering over the concerns raised by the environmentalists has created a negative image of this project, the company is planning to launch new hardware to fix this issue
• To manage this illumination and retain the existing darkness of the sky, the company will modify the software of these satellites and also will launch another satellite which will be a sun visor called ‘VisorSat’
• This VisorSat will decrease the lights of the launched satellites once they reach the required locations. Previously, the parts in the surface were white in color that would illuminate the light into space but now they are being replaced by the black coating. This new experiment to dim the lights of the satellite might create some issues in the thermal balance of satellites
• So, now the satellites moving upward will be shining like a pearl in the sky but once they are placed at their respective positions, the DarkSat launched by SpaceX will start working and the light will be reduced in space

The current status of Starlink- 

The satellites of Starlink will be placed in low earth orbit, an orbit which begins from 160 km above the surface of the earth and goes up to 1000 km in space. Satellites placed at low earth orbit will be traveling at a speed of 7.8 kmps, it takes almost 90 minutes to revolve the whole earth. As per the current status of Starlink project, the first batch of 420 satellites has already been launched and from the second batch of satellites ‘VisorSat’ will be sent to block the illumination.

In all the batches of the satellites associated with the starlink project, this ‘VisorSat’ system will be used. 

Starlink is visible from Earth. This group of satellites of the Starlink project seems like a line of lights in the sky. This constellation will be a straight line, so it can be easily identified in a clear sky. So, Starlink will be easily visible from Earth when the sky is clear at night. You can see them from the remote or rural areas. 

Starlink satellite power source- 

The Starlink satellite power source is the phenomenon of ‘ion propulsion’. The power source of Starlink satellite is Krypton which gives it the energy to stay in space and gain energy from time to time. 

Conclusion

Providing the Internet to the people who are still deprived of internet access, is the goal of governments and also the private companies nowadays. Every company is trying to get as large market access as it can. In the race to provide better internet connectivity, Google is ready with its project ‘loon’ and Facebook has plans for project ‘Athena’. In the coming years, we might witness a crowded sky.