Direct message exchange from satellite to mobile on the ground The SpaceX team has managed to send messages to phones for the first time through its Starlink satellites in space. SpaceX achieved this success within a few days of launching a satellite with a ‘direct to sale’ feature.
SpaceX shared a photo on social network X and informed us that this success was achieved on January 8. Starlink is a satellite network of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, located in low Earth orbit. With this, Musk plans to provide internet services to people around the world.
There are currently 5250 active SpaceX satellites in low Earth orbit. Six of them were launched on January 2. The ‘direct to cell’ feature that connects to the phone on the ground has been placed on the satellite.
Other factors, such as Doppler shift (changing the frequency or wavelength of the wave relative to an object) and time delay (slowing down time), are affecting the communication between the phone and the satellite. Therefore, it is considered necessary to have a seamless handoff (transition without interruption, delay, or loss of data) on the satellites.
Also, the transmission power of the phone is low, and the antenna is also of low capacity. Because of this, it is said that it will be a challenge to connect a satellite to a phone.
For this, SpaceX says that it has placed direct-to-sell payloads with custom silicon and advanced software algorithms on satellites.
From Direct to Sale, SpaceX plans to provide uninterrupted access to text, voice, and data to 4G devices worldwide. Currently, SpaceX is providing internet service to 2.3 million customers through its satellite.