The picture shows the star chain
Since 2015, the United States SpaceX company announced the start of the Starlink program, has successfully launched thousands of satellites into the air, in the middle of last month, Musk sent 53 satellites to the sky again, is the Starlink plan to cover the world? There are experts in space concerns about this, because Musk's crazy move, may open a new round of space race, this move is not conducive to the peaceful use of space by humans, other countries must be vigilant, Starlink, is a large number of satellites in space networking system, can provide coverage of satellite network services to the world, the United States SpaceX originally planned to launch 12,000 satellites, and later increased by 30,000, is expected to be fully formed Starlink system, the number of satellites in orbit will be no less than 42,000.
The Starlink program is definitely one of the most daring projects in the history of human spaceflight, because the satellites launched by humans in the past few decades may not reach the number of 42,000, if these satellites in the hands of the United States are all in orbit, then it will greatly increase the crowding of space orbits, do not think that the space in space is very large, satellites can be launched without restrictions, to know that each satellite must follow its own orbit, if the orbit is occupied by other satellites, then the subsequent launch of satellites can only choose to adjust to other orbits.
The picture shows space junk
If the United States 42,000 satellites are all in orbit, then the satellite orbit space left for other countries will be very limited, what is more difficult to accept is that in the past, the spacecraft launched by humans, the United States accounted for the vast majority, and many spacecraft did not fall into the atmosphere after the end of their life, and continued to stay in orbit, so that a large amount of space junk was generated, the current number of space junk in orbit is about 50,000 pieces, which has caused a very adverse impact on human space launches, if the life of 42,000 satellites in the United States ends, then the space garbage in space that has suddenly doubled, no country can accept it.
Not to mention the cost of space launch itself is not cheap, the United States will send a kilogram of objects into space, at least need to spend 20,000 US dollars, complete 42,000 satellites, the cost required is even more difficult to estimate, even if SpaceX Company developed the Falcon 9 can be repeatedly launched, but also need the US Congress to pay hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars in costs, so why is the US top management still so supported Musk's crazy move? The answer is that Starlink is in the service of US hegemony, and in order to continue its dream of dominating the world, the United States is naturally willing to pay blood.
Because in the field of 5G, the United States has lagged behind China, so want to use starlink to regain the advantage, because the 6G network conceived by the United States is provided by a large number of satellites, and the current Chinese 5G, mainly or the cellular network composed of ground base stations, at the same time, once so many satellites are launched, the satellites of other countries can only be excluded to the marginal orbit, and can no longer compete with the United States, plus the United States has formed a space force, for which other countries will naturally not agree, it is likely to set off a new space arms race.
In order to cope with the US Starlink plan, China has also proposed its own Hongyan constellation system, which is expected to be built at a similar time as the Starlink, as the world's most functional constellation system, Hongyan has only 300 satellites, not only the construction cost is lower, but also do not have to worry about the problem of space junk, more importantly, the Hongyan Constellation satellite has been launched many times, pre-occupying the satellite orbit for China's future space launches.