Because he doesn’t have enough going on, Elon Musk—he of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, SolarCity, and the Hyperloop—is launching another project. Musk wants to build a second Internet in space and one day use it to connect people on Mars to the Web. To this end, Musk plans to send hundreds of satellites to orbit the planet 750 miles above the ground. That’s much farther than the ISS, which maintains an altitude of around 268 miles, but closer than the farthest medium-earth orbit communication satellites at 22,300 miles. Their closer proximity to users means speedier internet as signals have lesser distance to travel, so the system could (potentially, anyway) rival optic fiber.
Musk hasn’t named the project yet, but said that it will be based in SpaceX’s new Seattle office. He also sees it as the basis for reaching internet to Mars, saying that “It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well.” SpaceX will build its own satellites to get the network up and running, which will fly in a slightly lower orbit to reduce communications lag. Of course, Musk also sees this technology as establishing a communications link between earth and Mars, a planet he hopes to one day colonize. That’s part of the motivation behind SpaceX, whose Dragon capsules have successfully resupplied the International Space Station.
It’s going to be a long, slow road to building it, but Musk says the company sees it as a long-term revenue source for SpaceX to fund building a city on Mars.
