SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shares Starlink satellite information for the next generation.

Monday, May 30, 2022 | Chimniii Desk

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has given the first technical details regarding the company's next-generation Starlink 'Gen2' satellite design, revealing that it will outperform the current version in nearly every way.

During an onsite interview and Starbase tour with YouTuber Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut), Musk revealed – largely unprompted – that SpaceX has already built at least one functional Starlink Gen2/V2.0 satellite prototype and shipped it to the South Texas Starship factory, where it is currently being stored, during an onsite interview and Starbase tour with Musk. More importantly, Musk revealed the first details about the next-generation spacecraft, revealing that each Starlink V2.0 satellite will weigh about 1.25 tonnes (2750 lb), be about seven metres (23 feet) long, and be nearly an order of magnitude more capable than the "Starlink 1" satellites it will eventually replace.

Almost ten months after SpaceX initially announced its modified plans for a 30,000-satellite constellation, those details have validated a few important elements of speculation regarding Starlink's future.

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Back in August 2021, I predicted that, similar to Falcon 9, SpaceX would aim to optimise its new Starlink V2.0 satellite design to maximise the launch performance of Starship. A version of the constellation optimised for Starship would be structured such that the rocket could launch a whole orbital plane (one ring of satellites distributed equally around the Earth) in one go, according to an updated Starlink Gen2 file. Except for 500 (1.5 percent) of the nearly 30,000 spacecraft in that constellation variation, all but 500 (1.5 percent) would be stationed in planes of 110 or 120 satellites, implying that SpaceX meant that every starship would carry 110-120 satellites. Using Musk's latest bullish Starship performance estimate of 150 tonnes to LEO, a Starship-optimized Starlink V2.0 satellite would almost certainly weigh up to 1250 kg.

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Each Starlink V2.0 satellite will weigh... "approximately one and a quarter tonnes," or 1250 kg, according to Musk. Starlink V1.0 and V1.5 satellites weigh around 260 and 310 kg, respectively, implying that Starlink V2.0 satellites will be slightly heavier than V1.5 and slightly lighter than V1.0.

According to Musk, the V2.0 satellites will be "nearly an order of magnitude more capable than Starlink 1." He declined to use the terms bandwidth or throughput to describe the whole capabilities of a communication satellite, yet Starlink V1.0 satellites are thought to have a total bandwidth of 18 gigabits per second (18 Gbps). It's unclear whether Starlink V1.5, which was a substantial improvement, also added extra bandwidth, or if Musk was referring to the more recent Starlink V1.x version. Even if he was comparing V2.0 to the first V1.0 satellites, each Starlink V2.0 satellite could potentially add 140-160 Gbps to the 30,000-satellite system.

Starlink V1.5 versus Starlink V1.0. Starlink V2.0 satellites will be more than twice as long and likely have at least five times as much surface area for Earth-facing antennas. (SpaceX)

In the end, detailed numbers aren't required to underscore the significance of Musk's details. If true, Starlink V2.0 will be able to fit nearly twice as much useful bandwidth into a given unit of satellite mass as V1.x. When you consider that Starship could provide ten times the performance to LEO as Falcon 9, a single Starship launch could theoretically enhance total network capacity by a factor of twenty times. Each Falcon 9 launch, for example, added around 1080 Gbps of instantaneous bandwidth to the constellation with 60 260-kilogram Starlink V1.0 satellites. A launch of 120 1250-kilogram Starlink V2.0 satellites by a starship might add about 19,000 Gbps to the network (19 terabits per second).

Despite these significant benefits, SpaceX's Starlink Gen2 goals leave no room for error. If the FCC approves SpaceX's licencing request, the company will have to launch half of the constellation in six years, which is roughly 130 launches per year. In comparison, the Falcon 9 rocket, which has been flying since 2010, is ten times smaller and less reusable, and did not achieve 22 launches in a single year until 2020. For Starship to reach the frequency needed by Starlink Gen2, SpaceX would have to build up launches of the world's largest rocket at an incredible rate, with very few failures or hiccups along the way.

As daunting as the task may be, the possible rewards are equally so. If placed uniformly around the Earth, a constellation of 30,000 Starlink V2.0 satellites could provide a total bandwidth of 1250 terabits per second (Tbps) over land (excluding Antarctica) at any given second. Even if half of the bandwidth is required for backhaul and routing, global internet infrastructure installed bandwidth in 2020 is expected to reach 600 Tbps. The number of satellites that can be simultaneously available over any single point on Earth will always be a bottleneck for Starlink, so the constellation will never be able to match a ground network 1:1 with the same installed capacity, but it's safe to assume that if SpaceX is able to build it, Starlink Gen2 could serve tens or even hundreds of millions of users located anywhere on Earth.

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