China, USA, Europe

Internet from satellite: It’s getting crowded in Earth orbit!

Artist's illustration: Starlink satellites transmit internet to earth by the thousands.

(Bild: Dayan - stock.adobe.com)

"A thousand sails" ("Qianfan") is the name of a new space project in China: in future, it is to comprise a network of thousands of satellites offering regional internet access. At the beginning of August, the People's Republic launched the first 18 satellites into space, with a further 108 to follow this year. However, there are already 6,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, which SpaceX boss Elon Musk is using to create Internet access worldwide. In total, there will be more than 34,000.

China also wants to expand its network in stages - the plan is to have around 15,000 satellites orbiting the earth by 2030. However, "Qianfan" is not China's only satellite project in space. The "GW" constellation is planned with around 13,000 satellites. Another project, Honghu-3, is to comprise around 10,000 satellites. Large Internet projects with thousands of satellites are also about to be launched in other countries, such as Amazon's Kuiper.

Different standards apply in space
Of course, the dimensions in space are enormous. But in view of the many plans for satellite networks, the question is: how much space is there in low orbit - i.e. at an altitude of around 200 to 2000 kilometers - and won't the satellites get in each other's way? In an interview with the Financial Times at the end of 2021, Musk calculated that there was room for "billions of satellites". Each layer, i.e. altitude, has a larger surface area than the Earth itself. "A few thousand satellites are nothing," he said.

A few thousand satellites are nothing.

SpaceX-Chef Elon Musk

The European Space Agency ESA takes a more critical view of the issue. According to the agency, there are around 13,230 satellites in orbit around the earth, around 10,200 of which are still in use. The increasing number of satellite constellations in space increases the risk of collisions, which could cause immense damage in chain reactions, says ESA head Josef Aschbacher. He is in favor of a globally applicable space traffic law to clarify who has to take evasive action in dangerous situations.

The ESA itself also wants to drastically limit the creation of space debris in view of the increasing number of satellites by 2030. Every satellite that is sent into space is to be removed from orbit at the end of its life, as Aschbacher says. In September, ESA deliberately burnt up one of its satellites in the atmosphere.

Satellite launch causes a cloud of debris
China's launch of a disused weather satellite in 2007 showed just how devastating the effects of debris can be. It is estimated that more than 40,000 pieces of debris more than one centimetre in diameter were created - every second collision avoidance manoeuvre by ESA satellites since then has been caused by such pieces.

The US space agency NASA, which itself has almost 2,000 satellites in space, is also concerned about the increasing number of satellites and debris in space and is reportedly working on "clean-up plans".

Lambert Liu, an industry insider and space expert from China, however, believes that the risk of satellites colliding is low. The Chinese citizen refers to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. Every country has to report data on satellite launches there, also to prevent collisions.

"Nobody wants something like this to happen, which is why we check the United Nations system to see which satellites are in the sky before launch," he says. The missiles are also in contact with the ground. If a satellite flies too high or too low, adjustments have to be made to avoid a crash.

Some experts take a more critical view of the space issue. Miles Lifson and Richard Linares argued back in 2022 in an opinion piece on the online portal "Spacenews" that there is not enough space in low Earth orbit to safely place so many satellites there - unless precise regulations are agreed.

There are no fixed routes in orbit
There are no fixed routes on which satellites have to fly. This is another reason why the space race is a priority for China. The current five-year plan of the Communist Party-ruled country sets the development of various satellites as a goal. This is also due to "the scarcity of satellite frequencies and orbital resources", which, according to official information, are allocated "on a first-come, first-served basis".

But why go to all this trouble if access to the Internet can also be provided on Earth? Liu cites China's national security as the reason. If you establish your own communication in space, you can prevent Internet access from being dependent on political decisions in other countries such as the rival USA.

In addition, around 40 percent of people on Earth do not yet have Internet access, which is why now is a good time to build a technical infrastructure for this, says Liu. However, some people are critical of the fact that China could soon be offering Internet via its satellites in other parts of the world, such as Africa. After all, the People's Republic blocks critical websites such as those of foreign media or organizations for its approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants.

Astronomers castigate light pollution
A whole other group takes a critical view of all the satellites: astronomers. This is because when the sun shines on the satellites, they appear as streaks of interference on astronomical images. For two years now, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has therefore been operating its own satellite monitoring system, which astronomers can use to plan their observations with the telescopes.

The IAU has just calculated that a new expansion stage of the Starlink satellites could shine up to five times brighter in the sky than the previous Starlink satellites. However, the brightness can be reduced, for example by using less reflective outer coatings on the satellites or certain flight maneuvers.

Some astronomers are now hoping for support from artificial intelligence. As the magazine "Science" has just reported, AI is able to recognize and eliminate the long interference stripes in the photos with a high degree of certainty. But satellite launches and developments are progressing at "breakneck speed", Siegfried Eggl, an astrophysicist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told the magazine. Researchers are "doing their best to catch up".