English

SpaceX will sell satellite lasers to competitors that can accelerate space communication

473
2024-05-10 16:04:13
See translation

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell stated at a meeting on Tuesday that the company has started selling satellite lasers for fast space communication to other satellite companies.



SpaceX's thousands of Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit use inter satellite laser links to transmit data to each other in space at the speed of light, so that the network can provide more extensive Internet coverage worldwide with fewer ground stations.

During a speech at a panel at the Washington Satellite Industry Conference, Schottwell stated that SpaceX, as a supplier, will sell the technology to other companies.

Schottwell said, "We will launch this plan... This summer, our new North Star Dawn mission will be conducted on the Dragon spacecraft." He referred to the upcoming private astronaut flight aboard the company's Dragon spacecraft.

Schottwell stated that the laser product is called a "Plug and Plaser", indicating that customers can easily install these devices on their spacecraft.
Space companies choose to sell spacecraft components to diversify their revenue and increase cash to fund larger capital intensive projects. SpaceX is developing and testing its next-generation Starship rocket, which is designed to be cheaper than its main Falcon 9 rocket but much more powerful.
"We usually don't sell components, so this is a bit fresh for us," Schottwell told Reuters after a group discussion. She stated that SpaceX is already in negotiations with potential clients.

Source: Laser Net

Related Recommendations
  • NASA's laser reflector instrument helps to accurately locate Earth measurements

    The most famous use of GPS satellites is to help people understand their location, whether it is driving cars, ships or planes, or hiking in remote areas. Another important but little-known use is to distribute information to other Earth observation satellites to help them accurately locate measurements of our planet.NASA and several other federal agencies, including the US Space Force, the US Spa...

    2023-12-12
    See translation
  • Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics proposes a new solution for quartz glass as a visible light laser material

    Recently, Hu Lili, a research group of the Advanced Laser and Optoelectronic Functional Materials Department of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed a new scheme based on rare earth ions Dy3+doped quartz glass as a yellow laser material, and the relevant research results were published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society as "Effect o...

    2024-06-05
    See translation
  • Laser solder paste: comprehensive analysis of working principle and application fields

    Laser solder paste is a new type of high-tech laser soldering material that is widely used. Laser solder paste achieves high-precision control of circuit board soldering through laser heating in the electronic manufacturing process. This article will provide a detailed introduction to the working principle of laser solder paste and its applications in fields such as electronic manufacturing and au...

    2024-04-11
    See translation
  • Chuangxin Laser Industry Dedicated Laser and Solutions Help Promote the Intelligent Development of Cladding Application Industry

    Laser cladding technology, also known as laser additive manufacturing technology, uses high-energy laser as the heat source and metal alloy powder as the cladding material. Through the synchronous action of laser and alloy powder on the metal surface, it quickly melts to form a molten pool, and rapidly solidifies to form a dense, uniform, and controllable thickness metallurgical bonding layer, the...

    2023-11-01
    See translation
  • Tailoring 'hollow' hydrogen molecule generation with two-color, bicircularly polarized laser pulses

    Rydberg atoms and molecules are characterized by having one or more electrons in highly excited bound states. Such atoms and molecules are said to be in “Rydberg states” and are also called “hollow” atoms and molecules. Rydberg states are useful for studying various phenomena arising in intense light–matter interaction that involve electronic excitation with an intens...

    2023-09-16
    See translation