Build a "space bridge"! How does satellite Internet become the "new infrastructure" in space?

Satellite Internet is the third generation of Internet infrastructure after wired Internet and wireless Internet. Satellite Internet includes high-throughput satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO) Internet constellations and low earth orbit (LEO) Internet constellations.

Satellite Internet components

Overview of the Development of Low-Earth Orbit Internet Constellations

Low-orbit broadband Internet constellations are not new. The small satellite technology that began to develop in the 1980s played a huge role in promoting the development of constellations. In the early 1990s, low-orbit communication constellations began to prevail. With the rise of low-orbit voice communication constellations such as Iridium and Globalstar, the industry has successively proposed the concepts of multiple medium- and low-orbit Internet constellations, including the "Teledesic" constellation proposed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the "Skybridge" constellation proposed by France's Alcatel.

Due to the failure of the early operation of the Iridium system and the first trough of the Internet industry, all these Internet constellation ideas remained on paper. In fact, satellite communications have been developing in competition, complementation and cooperation with terrestrial communications since the first day of its birth. The development of satellite Internet constellations can be divided into three historical stages:

The first stage (late 1980s to 2000) was represented by the Iridium system, which sought to rebuild a space-based network and sell independent satellite phones to compete with terrestrial telecom operators for users. The second stage (2000-2014) was represented by the New Iridium system, which was mainly used as a "gap filler" for terrestrial communication means and was limited in scale. The third stage (2014 to present) was represented by the "Other 3 Billion" (O3b) MEO constellation founded by Greg Wheeler, which provides trunk transmission and cellular backhaul services to global users, regards terrestrial telecom operators as its customers and partners, and satellite networks become a supplement to terrestrial networks. O3b and mature GEO high-throughput satellites have data transmission rates that far exceed those of the Iridium and Globalstar systems. Although their system capacity cannot be compared with terrestrial communication means, they can already meet basic broadband needs in areas that are not covered by terrestrial facilities.

In addition, many domestic and foreign companies have proposed low-orbit Internet constellation plans, and some companies have entered a state of intensive deployment. Greg Wheeler founded OneWeb as early as 2012. OneWeb is committed to building a high-speed broadband network that can cover the world and provide high-speed broadband services to all parts of the world, so as to bridge the digital divide between different regions and become a leader in satellite Internet. Since then, multiple low-orbit Internet constellation plans have been proposed one after another, ready to share a share of the huge potential market. These include Starlink proposed by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, LeoSat proposed by LeoSat, TeleSatLEO of Canada TeleSat, Amazon's Kuiper, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation's Hongyun Project, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's Hongyan Constellation, China Electronics Technology Group's integrated space and earth information network, Galaxy Aerospace's Galaxy, etc.

OneWeb's proposed low-orbit internet constellation

OneWeb's initial constellation included 648 satellites and 234 backup satellites, totaling 882 satellites. Later, 2,000 more satellites were added, bringing the total number of satellites to about 2,882. Each satellite weighs 150 kg and uses Ku and Ka bands. On June 22, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States announced that it had officially approved OneWeb to enter the US broadband service market. The characteristics of OneWeb's constellation are that it basically achieves global coverage, integration with terrestrial mobile Internet, and large-scale manufacturing of satellites. However, OneWeb underestimated the difficulty of manufacturing and launching satellites, and the sharp increase in costs laid the groundwork for today's bankruptcy.

Starlink plans to build a satellite constellation consisting of nearly 12,000 satellites. The constellation has chosen the Ku/V frequency band, consisting of a low-orbit constellation of 4,425 satellites distributed at an altitude of 1,150 kilometers (recently lowered to 550 kilometers), and a very low-orbit constellation of 7,518 satellites distributed at about 340 kilometers, which is conducive to better global coverage.

SpaceX's proposed Starlink constellation

The strategic significance of developing satellite internet

The development of satellite Internet is an important national strategy. Establishing satellite Internet is to meet the needs of the future Internet of Everything and to safeguard national security, and will form a new industry worth trillions of dollars.

First, the development of satellite Internet will provide new impetus for the development of the space economy. The development of low-orbit satellite constellations will realize seamless global Internet connection services. Compared with geosynchronous orbit satellites, it has shorter transmission delays and smaller path losses; compared with optical fibers, it is easy to deploy in areas with low business density and low cost. At present, there are still 3 billion people in the world who do not have access to the Internet. Low-orbit satellite Internet has become an economical and efficient solution with broad market prospects, which can promote the industrialization of commercial aerospace.

Secondly, satellite Internet will become one of the focal points of strategic games among major powers. Currently, the world's major powers are competing for the advantages of future ground network technology, and the core technology is 5G. Since my country is currently in a leading position in 5G, the United States is encouraging companies to actively develop low-orbit Internet constellations in addition to stepping up the development of 5G and 6G technologies. As a result, satellite Internet will become a cutting-edge technology for China and the United States to compete for future technological advantages. On the other hand, against the backdrop of broad prospects for the development of satellite Internet, orbits and frequencies will become scarce resources, and seizing resources will also become an important driving force for the development of satellite Internet.

Thirdly, satellite Internet has huge military potential. In modern warfare, a secure and efficient network can provide important guarantees for gaining the initiative in war, and satellite Internet will be the most important means of military command, control and communication. In recent years, low-orbit broadband communication satellite technology has gradually matured, prompting the US military to pay more and more attention to the construction and use of low-orbit constellations to replace and back up the single expensive GEO satellites used in the past. Based on the "Space Enhanced Combat Effectiveness (SeeMe)" project, the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) focused on the development of the "Blackjack" project in fiscal year 2019. The project aims to make full use of the small, light, low-power and low-cost low-orbit satellite constellations developed by commercial companies. The ultimate goal is to achieve a high degree of networking of military satellite payloads, with both resilience and persistence, and to continuously provide the military with the largest over-the-horizon remote sensing, signal and communication capabilities on a global scale. On July 1, 2019, the US Space Development Agency (SDA) issued a request for information on the next-generation space architecture. According to the document, it will consist of several layers of structures based on a network of small communication satellites.

DARPA's Blackjack Project

Finally, the development of satellite Internet will promote the transformation and innovation of aerospace technology. The low-orbit Internet constellation is the most innovative system in the aerospace field in recent years. The new small communication satellite technology and ground terminal technology that have emerged in this process will have a profound impact on the development of future satellite technology and satellite applications. Satellite manufacturing has increased the proportion of commercial industrial-grade devices, and mass production of small satellites has been achieved through standardization and modularization to reduce the cost of satellite development. The demand for launching a large number of satellites has promoted the development of low-cost reusable rocket technology. These technological innovations will flow to the traditional aerospace field and become an engine to promote the development and transformation of the aerospace industry.

Handheld terminals for low-orbit internet constellations

New drivers of the space economy

Undoubtedly, satellite Internet will become a new driving force for the space economy due to its multi-faceted market demands. These demands mainly include:

1. The needs of areas without terrestrial networks. This is not only the demand of residents in these areas, but also the urgent demand of people who move into these areas for work and tourism and are accustomed to using the Internet, including field workers such as oil and gas pipelines, transportation construction, forest operations, mining operations, and drilling platforms. According to estimates by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), nearly half of the world's population is still not connected to the Internet, especially most of the African population still has no access to the Internet. The domestic Internet penetration rate is 59.6%, and 2% of administrative villages still do not have fiber optic and 4G access.

2. Aviation and maritime needs. Every year, there are more than 5 billion airplane passengers in the world, who have strong Internet access needs and high consumption levels. Ship passengers spend a long time away from shore and have relatively high consumption levels, so Internet access is almost a necessity. Therefore, they are expected to become the earliest users of low-orbit Internet constellations. After several years of development, the installation and operating costs of aviation WiFi systems have dropped to a level that almost any airline in the world can provide, but many current aircraft WiFis have problems such as slow speeds and traffic restrictions. At the beginning of 2019, there were more than 95,400 shipping ships in the world. Seafarers on shipping ships mainly access the Internet through maritime satellites, which are very expensive and have a low penetration rate. In 2019, the number of passengers on 272 cruise ships worldwide reached 30 million, and cruise passengers had a strong demand for the Internet. The total number of marine fishing vessels in the world is about 4.6 million, which is the largest potential customer group for low-orbit Internet constellations in the maritime field.

Internet access on civil aircraft

3. High-end user needs that require low latency and uninterrupted communication. Low-orbit Internet constellations can provide shorter latency over long distances. In some long-distance transmission scenarios, communications via low-orbit satellites may have a shorter latency than ground networks. Because the speed of light in optical fiber is 2/3 of that in a vacuum, in long-distance transmission applications, although the signal travels hundreds of kilometers more through the satellite, its latency is still shorter than that through ground optical fiber. Therefore, for international finance and Internet of Vehicles services that require low latency and uninterrupted communication, low-orbit Internet constellations will be more suitable.

4. Government and defense needs. Low-orbit Internet constellations can provide global, uninterrupted, and continuous communication services, and can serve as an important communication means for government emergency response, diplomacy, and defense. Government and defense orders will be an important cornerstone of constellation operations.

The risks of developing low-orbit satellite internet constellations

Any startup has risks. "Guess how many low-orbit satellite constellations have not gone bankrupt?" Musk asked at the 2020 Satellite Conference in Washington, D.C. in March 2020. His answer was "zero," and he joked that SpaceX was working on "not going bankrupt."

On March 27, 2020, OneWeb filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. OneWeb said that due to the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and market turmoil, the company failed to reach an agreement with its major shareholder SoftBank, so that the company lost the window period to attract new investors and was forced to enter bankruptcy proceedings. Like its predecessors Iridium, OneWeb also failed to avoid the fate of failure midway. The news of OneWeb's application for bankruptcy protection was somewhat unexpected, because just six days ago, 34 of OneWeb's satellites were launched on a Soyuz rocket, bringing the total number of satellites to 74. OneWeb said that after filing for bankruptcy protection in New York, the company will seek to sell. Filing for bankruptcy allows the company to have the opportunity to get out of bankruptcy and continue to operate without having to bear debt.

OneNet launches 34 satellites at once

In any case, OneWeb’s bankruptcy filing has sounded the whistle for the risks of low-orbit internet constellations. The main risks are:

1. Risk of high investment. Although OneWeb can reduce the cost of satellites through batch production, the launch cost of the rockets it uses is still very high, and the delay in progress greatly increases the cost. In contrast, SpaceX uses its own Falcon 9 rocket to launch 60 satellites at a time, which has obvious advantages in terms of fast progress and low cost. The Northern Sky Research Institute (NSR), an American aerospace consulting company, made a rough estimate of the future income of Internet satellite companies through the economic indicator of debt ratio. If calculated based on a monthly fee of US$50 per household, companies that build satellite Internet constellations in the future will need to obtain at least 10 million users to make a profit, and it is very difficult to achieve such a goal.

SpaceX launches 60 satellites at once

2. Frequency coordination and landing rights are very difficult. Satellite frequency orbital resources are strategic and scarce resources for national development and the foundation for the construction of space infrastructure. In addition to frequency coordination, the issue of landing rights may be even more difficult to coordinate.

3. Faced with competition from ground communication systems. Ground communications are vigorously promoting the development of 5G. It is currently difficult to predict whether the low-orbit Internet constellation system will lag behind ground communications again after it is fully built. For my country, where 4G has covered 98% of the population, this risk is even greater. Once foreign satellite Internet constellations are successfully deployed, the Chinese market will undoubtedly be a hot spot for competition. This cross-border global Internet access business is bound to bring about fierce competition and information security issues.

4. The test of the harsh space environment in low orbit. During the process of changing orbits, satellites of low-orbit Internet constellations need to frequently cross high-energy proton radiation belts, which will have a great impact on the normal operation of the satellite's electronic system, and therefore put forward high requirements for the satellite's radiation resistance. In addition, satellites are also at risk of colliding with micrometeorites and orbital debris. In addition, there are a large number of satellites. Once they become new space junk after retirement, it will have a great impact on the subsequent deployment of satellites.

New opportunities for my country to develop space economy

Satellite communications are the main force and core of the space economy. China has a vast territory and more than 3 million square kilometers of marine territory. A global satellite Internet system is an important solution to fill the digital divide in remote areas and solve emergency rescue problems at home and abroad, and to safeguard my country's ocean-going economic interests and military presence. Therefore, it is of great strategic value to build a large-scale satellite Internet system with Chinese characteristics as soon as possible, which is financially guaranteed by the state, organized and coordinated by the government, and divided and cooperated by enterprises.

On April 20, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission clearly included satellite Internet in the scope of new infrastructure for the first time, which greatly boosted the confidence of the commercial aerospace industry. In the implementation of the project, we can adopt the model of developing "large aircraft" or the "Beidou" model, but we must also give full play to the role of private enterprises. We believe that under the guidance of the new national system, we will gather funds and talents from all aspects, do a good job in the top-level design of the project and optimize the plan, vigorously innovate, and build a satellite Internet that integrates the sky and the earth as soon as possible, which will surely promote my country's aerospace technology and space economy and take it to a new level.