Breaking News
10 Unexpected Consequences Of An Economic Crisis Nobody Is Talking About
Trump says RAF Fairford terror suspects were 'looking to do big damage' to US forces as Iran
Syria Opens Overland Fuel Transit Route To Iraq Amid Hormuz Closure
New Jersey Microsoft-Linked Data Center Hit With Record Fine Over Unpermitted Gas Generators
Top Tech News
Tesla Model 3 killer charges from 10 to 97% in just 9 minutes
World-first unpowered DNA computer sets speed record
I Power 5 Buildings Off-Grid. Here's How
The US government is pushing hard to get a working nuclear fission reactor into space by late 2028
SpaceX Starmind AI in Space Radiator
China Will Dominate Global Nuclear Energy Through 2035, Analyst Says
These Absolutely Wild-Looking EVs Are Saudi Arabia's First Homegrown Cars
BEYOND THE MOON: NASA plans a nuclear-powered fleet to push DEEPER into space
Big Oil Backs Mazama's $135 Million Bet On Superhot Geothermal
Quantum compass takes flight on Northrop's Lumberjack drone 
Laser-Linked Satellites Could Deliver 'Internet from Space'
A new design could double the network capacity of future "internet from space" systems.
Satellites do not yet play a major role in the world's internet infrastructure. However, this may soon be set to change.
Within the next decade, a new generation of satellites could lay the foundations for an "internet from space," says Ankit Singla, professor at ETH Zurich's Network Design & Architecture Lab. His team is investigating how to improve the performance of large-scale computer networks, including the internet.
Exploiting advances in cost-cutting technologies in the space sector, the new satellite systems would use thousands of satellites instead of the tens of satellites used in past systems. Laser light could then link these satellites to each other to form a network.
The coverage these satellites would provide could reach remote regions that currently have no or very limited access to the internet. These regions are either entirely unconnected or poorly connected to the intercontinental fiber-optic cables that power today's internet.
The 'Internet from Space' Race
The capabilities of the LEO satellites have triggered a new, contested "space race," with heavyweights such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Amazon throwing their hats into the ring. These companies are developing large-scale satellite constellations with thousands to tens of thousands of satellites. These would orbit the Earth at speeds of 27,000 km/h (16,777 mp/h) at a height of around 500 km (around 311 miles) (traditional geostationary satellites orbit at around 35,768 km (22,225 miles).
SpaceX, for example, has already launched its first 120 satellites, and is planning to offer a satellite-based broadband internet service from 2020. In addition to global coverage, the technology used in the "internet from space" promises high data transfer rates without major delays in data transmission. The latency, as computer scientists call these delays, is significantly lower than that of geostationary satellites, and even that of underground fiber-optic lines for long-distance communication.