Satellite Internet: Tesla Creator, Elon Musk, Plans 4,000 Satellites In High-Speed Internet ‘SpaceX Seattle’ Program, With Ambitious Mars Travel


Entrepreneur of Paypal and Tesla and tech billionaire Elon Musk revealed his plans Friday for his new Seattle-based SpaceX engineering office. Musk plans to recruit the best engineering minds of the world to create a system of 4,000 geosynchronous satellites, a network in space to deliver high-speed satellite internet anywhere on the the planet Earth. The entrepreneur hopes the internet satellite program will finance bigger dreams of traveling to Mars.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Elon Musk is not the only one developing satellite based internet, broadband speed satellite internet plans by Google is one of several efforts to spread internet access. In effort to find a solid functional method to take the internet to the most remote parts of the world, Google has also considered high-altitude balloons and solar-powered aerospace drones that are meant to fly for years at a time. While Verizon created zombie super cookies by creating undeletable tracking cookies that are abusing customer privacy rights.

At the closed event Friday, guests drank beer and wine and sipped Champagne as Elon Musk outlined his plan to build a formation of some 4,000 geosynchronous satellites, a network in space that could deliver high-speed internet access anywhere on Earth. The new satellite system is to be developed by the new SpaceX Seattle office, designed by those best and brightest software and aerospace engineers that Musk plans on hiring.

The event hosted some of the potential candidates, and Musk plans to grow the Seattle office staff to 1,000 in the next two to three years.

Elon Musk created SpaceX in his pursuit of traveling to Mars
Elon Musk created SpaceX in his pursuit of traveling to Mars

According to a guest present at the event, reported Seattle Times, Musk set his plan “all for the purpose of generating revenue to pay for a city on Mars.”

At the event, a heavily worn SpaceX Dragon space capsule was a prop of the event Friday, as proof of the dreams becoming reality. The worn craft was launched on the tip of a Falcon 9 rocket and used to to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, before being sent back to earth to be reused.

The South African-born Musk, 43, made his fortune as a co-founder of PayPal, then started Tesla Motors to reinvent the car and SpaceX to pursue his Mars ambition.

The venture to provide internet by satellite has been attempted before and found to be far too expensive. Satellite industry consultant, in Palos Verdes, Roger Rusch thinks its a no win venture.

“It’s highly unlikely that you can make a successful business out of this. It’s inconsistent with experience. These people are up against the laws of physics.”

Musk’s company, SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, has shaken up the commercial space business by slashing the cost of launching a rocket, reported L.A. Times. Musk claims he is going to do the same in the satellite market, and some analysts believer the vision could be realized.

The Telsa and SpaceX founder plans to launch satellites weighing less than 250 pounds, reports Ars Technica. New “micro-satellites” would be a huge cut in costs when most satellites are closer to the size of a bus.

Share this article: Satellite Internet: Tesla Creator, Elon Musk, Plans 4,000 Satellites In High-Speed Internet ‘SpaceX Seattle’ Program, With Ambitious Mars Travel
More from Inquisitr