Isn't space based Internet really second rate due to latency?
Of course its great if there's no other Internet access, like rural areas, but it's a really poor service isn't it?
Happy to be corrected.
Of course its great if there's no other Internet access, like rural areas, but it's a really poor service isn't it?
Happy to be corrected.
SpaceX is planning a constellation in low earth orbit, that is supposed to route the traffic around the globe and down to a ground station near the point where the server is. That's saving the delay from having to go through an optically dense medium (fiber, speed of light is there about 200000km/s) and taking advantage of the much higher speed of light in vacuum.
Satellite-to-satellite connections are handled by pointing lasers at eachother. Ground-ground connections are handled by pointing lasers at eachother through a fiber. Fundamentally they seem pretty similar to me.