Elon Musk plans on developing an Internet network for Mars, in hopes of making communication easy by the time mankind gets there.
Musk announced his plans for space Internet during a SpaceX event in Seattle, while celebrating the opening of a new office there by the company.
Of course, Musk's initial plans for his new Internet service focus more on Earth than Mars and include encompassing the globe with hundreds of Internet-delivering satellites, orbiting around 750 miles above the Earth. Because of their positioning, these Internet satellites will provide Internet access as fast, or even faster, than fiber optic cables.
Most importantly, though, Musk's satellites would deliver Internet to poor and remote regions of the world where access is not currently available.
"The speed of light is 40 percent faster in the vacuum of space than it is for fiber," says Musk.
"The long-term potential is to be the primary means of long-distance Internet traffic and to serve people in sparsely populated areas."
However, Musk has loftier ambitions for his Internet service and wants to take that service to Mars, funding it from what he makes off of his Internet service on Earth. Let's face it: we're going to get there sooner or later (although Musk argues SpaceX will get us there sooner) and we'll need a reliable means of communication.
"It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well," he says. "I think this needs to be done, and I don't see anyone else doing it."
Musk previously spoke about a manned city on Mars and plans on doing it by 2026. This beats NASA's own projection for the first manned mission to the red planet by 2035. If anyone else made such a claim, it might be laughed at, but Musk is the mastermind behind SpaceX, Tesla and the Hyperloop, which means that we might want to believe him. Not only does he have the brilliance of mind to accomplish such great feats, but he also has the monetary resources available.
As far as Musk's Internet service plans go, though, there is currently no timeline on when the global Internet satellites will go up, nor when we might all consider dumping Comcast as our ISP. However, there are now around 50 employees in the Seattle SpaceX office working towards that goal with expectations that the staff there will continue growing over the next few years.
[Photo Credit: NASA/JPL]
