Starlink Internet Between Mars, Earth? Elon Musk Confirms Big Starship Plan

Elon Musk's plans to explore planet Mars is far from over. He recently tweeted that SpaceX V1.5 Starlink, with its laser inter-satellite links, would be later deployed between Earth and Mars. These satellites is expected improve communications with the Starship spacecraft.

The American aerospace company SpaceX brings space research and exploration to a whole new level. Musk confirmed that Starlink satellites, initially used to provide broadband Internet connectivity around the world, could be used for communications, too.

Elon Musk Tweets Starlink Internet, Connectivity in Mars?

Various events linked up to this development. First, many fans should be familiar with Musk's interest in planet Mars. The internet even teased Musk to be an alien on Earth, which the billionaire good-naturedly confirmed.

Unfortunately, the trip to Mars would be difficult. Crossing over to a new planet would require a durable spacecraft and a capable research team.

For the spacecraft, SpaceX conceptualized Starship, a human landing system slated for NASA's Artemis Program. Starship should reach completion by 2024.

For the research team and communication, Musk teased using Starlink satellites. Starlink internet service has already been tested to run 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s with latency from 20ms to 40ms on Earth. Ideally, it could provide similar connectivity levels on Starship's crew and system.

It is worth noting that both Starship and Starlink are still in development. Many more upgrades might take place in the coming years.

For now, Musk seems to have planned out multiple uses for the SpaceX Starship and Starlink.

SpaceX Launch: The Inspiration4 Mission, Where to Watch

SpaceX and Musk also have other pressing matters to attend.

The world's first all-civilian human spaceflight dubbed Inspiration4 mission will finally launch Wednesday, 8:02 EDT. The mission will happen aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets and inside the Dragon spacecraft. The liftoff will take place on Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Here is a video embed of the launch from the SpaceX YouTube channel.

Many great achievements are expected from the Inspiration4 mission. First is the fund-raising goal to reach $200M for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The whole crew plans to give hope and create awareness about children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Second, the team plans to fly higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Dragon and Ispiration4 will drift an apogee of approximately 575 kilometers. The team will then take advantage of the unexplored territory to conduct experiments, health research, and further human exploration on space.

The space mission would approximately take three days after liftoff, with the crew returning to Earth via splash down on the Florida coast.

More details of the space mission are available on the SpaceX mission page.