SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has a lot going on lately between trying to get a rocket to land safely on Earth from space and making sure artificial intelligence doesn’t enslave/destroy us all, but he hasn’t forgotten about us, Internet. His next plan is a global satellite network to make sure everyone can watch cat videos, get yelled at by faceless monsters, and communicate by reaction GIF. Yay!
Not only would Musk’s still-unnamed plan to put satellites at a much lower orbit than traditional communications satellites—about 750 miles up as opposed to 22,000—help speed up Internet traffic around the world, but it would greatly improve web access in the developing world. Even if that developing world is another planet.
Musk wants to use the network, which he says won’t be active for at least five years, as a testing ground for a global communications network for Martian colonists as well as a potential revenue stream to keep settlements on the Red Planet running. Musk told Businessweek, “It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well. I think this needs to be done, and I don’t see anyone else doing it.”
Take that, Mark Zuckerberg’s drone fleet.
Musk has also recently announced that he’ll be building a five-mile test track for his futuristic Hyperloop transportation system. We may not have flying cars or Mr. Fusion yet, but at least our real world future finally seems to be taking shape.
(via Laughing Squid, image via vice1)
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