In 2014, Musk proposed the "Starlink" plan, which will launch 12,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit and establish and improve global Internet communication services. Subsequently, the scale of the "Starlink" expanded, and the number of satellites increased to 42,000. At present, Space Exploration Technology has launched nearly 1800 satellites. While Musk's satellites bring human welfare, they also contain huge space security risks.
According to the data, due to the excessive number of satellites of the Starlink program, 2100 close contact events occur every week. Once all 42,000 satellites are sent into the sky, the incidence of close contact events will reach 90%. At that point, space will become a mess, and the probability of satellite collisions will increase dramatically.
Musk has repeatedly stressed that the Starlink satellite has installed an automatic collision avoidance system, but there are many examples that show that this will still pose a threat to other countries' sky spacecraft. For example, in 2019, the "Starship-44" satellite almost collided with a European observation satellite, and recently it was exposed that the "Starlink" satellite arrived at the Chinese space station.
The director of the European Space Agency has accused Musk that the "star chain" is too large to be regulated, and it is difficult for competitors to catch up, and Musk will become the maker of space rules. However, Musk did not think so, arguing that space is large, satellites are small, and we are not stopping others from doing anything, nor do we want others to stop him.
"Starlink" has 2100 disasters a week, under the pressure of many parties, Musk has been criticized, but Musk is still calm, who is behind it to support Musk?
Musk has founded a number of companies, in addition to Space Exploration Technology, as well as Tesla and Sun City. Among them, Tesla's market value is more than $1 trillion. These companies have brought a steady stream of wealth to Musk, giving Musk the economic basis for building the "Starlink" plan.
The economy is only part of it, and Musk has close ties to NASA. If it weren't for NASA's funding and technology in the early days, Musk wouldn't have developed so fast. NASA is Musk's biggest backer, helping Musk realize his space dream in an all-round way.
Space has become the next American continent, who grabs it is whoever grabs it, and the strength determines the space area occupied. Due to the lack of regulation and rules, space is becoming increasingly chaotic. In the future, with the development of 6G technology, the number of satellites existing in space will increase significantly. How will people address the increasingly pressing security issues in space? There is no doubt that countries that can dominate the rules of space will become the new masters of space.
(Text/Boo Tsai)