原文标题：
Elon Musk and Amazon Are Battling to Put Satellite Internet in Your Backyard.
伊隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）和亚马逊（Amazon）争相将卫星互联网放入您的后院
原文连结：
https://reurl.cc/9ZWbAV
发布时间：
March 20, 2021 12:00 am ET
By Christopher Mims
原文内容：
For rural homesteaders and suburbanites alike, no matter where they live on
the globe, fast, reliable internet connectivity is on its way—from outer
space.
Cybersecurity specialist Luke McOmie lives entirely off-grid on the side of a
mountain in Colorado, where there’s no cell service or landline broadband
internet. Yet he recently gave a talk at a convention hosted in Japan on the
lethality of drones. He was live via satellite—his own personal satellite
internet connection, that is.
With a constellation of hundreds of satellites, and speeds comparable to U.S.
broadband, the Starlink service lets Mr. McOmie do his job despite being in
the middle of nowhere. He and his wife Melanie McOmie are living the sort of
lifestyle that pandemic-weary, deskbound urbanites might envy: raising
chickens, watching out for mountain lions, and taking in an expanse of
unsullied forest.
The McOmies are part of a beta testing program for a new kind of internet
service from Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX. Their experience has been
phenomenal so far, they say. They regularly get download speeds of 120
megabits per second, and because the antenna gives off a fair amount of heat,
they’ve been able to stay connected through most winter weather. They did
have to clear it after a recent blizzard, however.
It’s not clear what kind of speeds Starlink will offer to millions of
people, versus the more than 10,000 now testing in the U.S., Canada and the
U.K. Depending on how many people SpaceX signs up, future users could have
internet speeds that are only a fraction of what’s available during this
demo period. And even if Starlink and its soon-to-deploy competitors work as
advertised, there are many other potential challenges to their viability, let
alone profitability. They include the headaches of shared wireless spectrum,
and the threat of space debris.
But with at least three other serious, deep-pocketed contenders in the
internet-from-space race—including Amazon, OneWeb and longtime operator
Telesat—getting fast, reliable internet service from any place on earth with
a clear view of the sky could soon seem no more miraculous than a cell
signal. It also might not be much more expensive: Current pricing for
Starlink is $499 upfront and $99 a month for service.
Internet from space has obvious implications for potentially closing the
rural/urban digital divide, not only for Americans but also the rest of the
world. It could also encourage new ways of working and living, untethered
from cable and fiber-optic internet connections. And giving huge swaths of
homes a wider choice of internet service providers, irrespective of their
geography, could mean a shift in users, revenue and value away from
traditional telecom companies.
Nick Buraglio lives just outside Champaign, Ill. He has plenty of wired and
wireless broadband options. Yet, as a professional network engineer, he’s
testing Starlink out of curiosity.
Unlike established internet providers that handle installation, Starlink
requires you to do it yourself. But that was “mind-numbingly easy,” Mr.
Buraglio says. He connected the pizza-size Starlink antenna to the provided
router, and power, and then followed along in the Starlink smartphone app.
Since it needs an unobstructed view of the sky, free of overhanging trees, he
decided to mount it permanently on his roof. That, along with running the
antenna’s data-and-power cable into his home, was the hardest part. Still,
he says, it was no more complicated than installing a rooftop television
antenna back in the day.
Anyone wishing to reproduce this experience will have to get in line,
however: The waiting list for Starlink is now up to a year.
The experiences of Starlink beta users are enabled by the 1,000 or so
satellites that its parent company has launched. While that makes SpaceX
owner of about a third of all active satellites orbiting Earth, it’s only
the beginning: Starlink has received approval from the FCC to launch nearly
12,000 satellites.
So many satellites are required because each one passes overhead very
quickly, and is relatively close to Earth’s surface, up to about 1,200
miles, in what’s known as “low earth orbit.” The advantage of this orbit
is that signals can travel swiftly from earth to a satellite and back, which
is why Starlink is able to offer service with low “latency”—the time it
takes a signal to make a round trip. The McOmies say they are able to use
their Starlink service to blast opponents simultaneously on the demanding,
fast-twitch online first-person shooter “Apex Legends.”
Traditional telecom and earth-observing satellites generally hover much
farther from Earth, in what’s known as geosynchronous orbit, about 22,000
miles above the equator. This allows them to reach much more of the planet at
once, but the round-trip signal time is so long that applications like
internet telephony, video chatting and most types of gaming are virtually
impossible.
U.K.-based OneWeb, which was founded in 2012 and went bankrupt in 2020, has
recently been relaunched by a consortium including the British government and
Bharti Global. The company has already launched 110 satellites out of a
planned 648. The idea is for 588 to be active at any one time, says Chris
McLaughlin, OneWeb’s chief of government affairs. He projects that by the
end of this year, the company’s network will offer internet coverage to
northern latitudes, with full global coverage next year.
Another competitor is Canadian satellite company Telesat. Unlike the others,
it has more than 50 years of experience operating satellites, says Chief
Executive Dan Goldberg. Telesat doesn’t want to give everyone an antenna,
like Starlink and OneWeb do. Instead, it would provide connections to ground
stations owned by telecom companies, which would then connect to end users in
conventional ways such as cellular or long-range Wi-Fi networks. Users wouldn
’t have to worry about how they got the internet connection they were
enjoying, and could use their phones and other mobile devices instead of
specialized equipment.
Telesat will start launching its new constellation of 298 low-earth-orbit
broadband satellites in 2023, and plans to have full coverage of the globe by
2024, adds Mr. Goldberg. One reason its constellation is smaller than those
of its competitors is that each of its satellites is bigger and orbits at a
higher (but still low-earth) altitude, he says. Should the company’s plans
bear fruit, Telesat’s satellites will also have high-speed, laser-based
interconnections between each other, so they can pass internet traffic
between themselves, in space, before sending it back to earth closer to its
intended destination. (Starlink is also testing laser-based communication
between its satellites.)
Amazon’s Project Kuiper, about which the company has remained relatively
tight-lipped, has announced that it is committing $10 billion to launch a
network which, by all appearances, is very much like Starlink’s. While the
company has not announced its satellite design or launch timetable, it will
have to launch half of its intended network, or approximately 1,600
satellites, by July 2026 to comply with its FCC license.
In the future, there are yet more potential entrants into the space-internet
race: China announced it intends to launch its own network of 10,000
low-earth-orbit satellites, and the EU is contemplating building one as well.
Hardly a month goes by in which yet another startup doesn’t announce an
attempt at some slice of the market, including more than a dozen startups
aiming to use small satellites to connect the “Internet of Things.”
It’s not clear that all of these companies will successfully launch their
networks, or survive once they do, says Chris Quilty, a partner at Quilty
Analytics, which tracks the space industry from a financial perspective. His
own analysis of the viability of Starlink, for example, finds that its
moneymaking prospects depend heavily on slashing the cost of the
sophisticated and expensive ground-based antennas that it sends to customers.
The $499 upfront fee to join Starlink doesn’t cover the $2,000 to $2,500
that Mr. Quilty and other analysts estimate is the actual cost for each
antenna.
That said, the FCC in December announced its intention to give Starlink $885
million to connect homes in the U.S., if the company meets certain
requirements, as part of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
Countless other headaches await Starlink and its competitors. Among them are
the rights to the wireless spectrum satellites use to beam data to earth.
OneWeb, SpaceX and another satellite communications company argue they should
be granted senior rights to a certain wireless band in the U.S. This might
mean satellites from one of these companies—or their future competitors—
would have to modify their transmissions when they detect possible
interference, says Mr. Quilty.
Then there is the dreaded Kessler syndrome, depicted in the movie “Gravity,”
where orbiting space debris leads to a runaway space pileup. At present,
there are recommendations but few binding rules about how Earth’s low earth
orbit is used.
Until the space junk-pocalypse comes, Brian Jemes, network manager at the
University of Idaho, plans to continue enjoying his Starlink system. At his
home near Moscow, Idaho, satellite service has been 20 times faster than it
was with his local ISP, which connected over long-range Wi-Fi.
Mr. Jemes, who spent 18 years at Hewlett-Packard and has been building
networks for 32 years, is glad to be part of the Starlink beta. Still, he
knows that whether he continues to enjoy such fast internet speeds will
depend on how many satellites Starlink puts into the sky, and how popular the
service becomes.
“It’s how cable internet was at first,” he says, “until your whole
neighborhood was on it.”
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for our weekly newsletter.
Write to Christopher Mims at [email protected]
Copyright c 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the March 20, 2021, print edition as 'The New Space Race That Is
Landing in a Backyard Near You.'
机翻如下：
对于农村宅基地和郊区居民而言，无论他们生活在地球上的何处，都在快速，可靠地连接
互联网—从外太空。
网络安全专家卢克‧麦克米（Luke McOmie）完全脱离电网居住在科罗拉多州的一座山上
，那里没有手机服务或固定电话宽带互联网。然而，他最近在日本举行的一项关于无人机
杀伤力的公约上发表了演讲。他是通过卫星直播的，也就是说，他拥有自己的个人卫星互
联网连接。
Starlink服务拥有数百颗卫星，其速度可与美国宽带媲美，尽管身处茫茫荒地，还是让
McOmie先生做好了工作。他和妻子梅兰妮‧麦考米（Melanie McOmie）过著那种饱受流行
病困扰，坐满桌子的都市人可能羡慕的生活方式：养鸡，当心山狮，以及在广阔的未受污
染的森林中生活。
McOmies是埃隆‧马斯克（Elon Musk）火箭公司SpaceX提供的一种新型Internet服务的
Beta测试计划的一部分。他们说，到目前为止，他们的经历非常出色。它们的下载速度通
常为每秒120兆bit，并且由于天线会散发出大量的热量，因此他们能够在大多数冬季天气
下保持连接状态。然而，在最近的一场暴风雪过后，他们确实必须清除它。
尚不清楚Starlink将为数以百万计的人提供什么样的速度，而目前在美国，加拿大和英国
进行的超过10,000种测试已经完成。根据SpaceX签约的人数，未来的用户可能只有极少数
的网速在此演示期间可用的功能。即使Starlink及其即将部署的竞争对手按照广告宣传工
作，其生存能力也面临许多其他潜在挑战，更不用说盈利了。其中包括共享无线频谱的头
痛，以及太空碎片的威胁。
但是，与至少三个其他认真，财大气粗的竞争者—包括亚马逊，OneWeb和长期运营商
Telesat —展开激烈竞争，从地球上任何地方获得清晰天空的快速，可靠的互联网服务可
能很快就会到来 似乎没有比细胞信号更神奇的了。 它的价格可能也不会便宜得多：
Starlink的当前价格为499美元的预付款，以及每月99美元的服务费用。
太空互联网对于潜在地缩小农村/城市数字鸿沟具有明显的意义，这不仅对美国人而且对
世界其他地区也是如此。它还可以鼓励新的工作和生活方式，而不受电缆和光纤互联网连
接的束缚。不论其地理位置如何，给大片房屋提供更多选择的互联网服务提供商，可能意
味着用户，收入和价值从传统电信公司转移过来。
尼克‧布拉格里奥（Nick Buraglio）住在伊利诺伊州尚佩恩（Champaign）外，他有很多
有线和无线宽带选择。但是，作为一名专业的网络工程师，他出于好奇而对Starlink进行
了测试。
与已建立安装程序的互联网提供商不同，Starlink要求您自己完成。布拉格里奥说，但这
“非常轻松”。他将披萨大小的Starlink天线连接到提供的路由器和电源，然后继续使用
Starlink智能手机应用程序。由于需要无遮挡的天空视野，没有悬垂的树木，因此他决定
将其永久固定在屋顶上。那是最困难的部分，再加上将天线的数据和电源线插入他的家中
。他说，尽管如此，这并不比在白天安装屋顶电视天线更复杂。
任何希望重现这种体验的人都必须排队，但是：Starlink的等待名单现在已经长达一年了
。
母公司已经发射了1,000颗左右的卫星，从而使Starlink Beta用户的体验得到了支持。尽
管这使SpaceX拥有围绕地球运行的所有活动卫星的三分之一，但这仅仅是个开始：
Starlink已获得FCC的批准，可以发射近12,000颗卫星。
之所以需要如此多的卫星，是因为每颗卫星都非常快速地从头顶上方经过，并且相对接近
地球表面，长达1200英里，即所谓的“低地球轨道”。该轨道的优势在于，信号可以从地
球快速传播到卫星，然后又返回，这就是为什么Starlink能够以低“等待时间”（即信号
往返所需的时间）提供服务的原因。 McOmies表示，他们能够使用自己的Starlink服务在
要求苛刻的快速第一人称在线射击游戏《 Apex Legends》中同时爆炸对手。
传统的电信和地球观测卫星通常在离地球更远的地方悬停，在所谓的地球同步轨道上，距
赤道约22,000英里。这样一来，他们就可以一次到达地球上更多的地方，但是往返信号时
间是如此之长，以至于互联网电话，视频聊天和大多数类型的游戏等应用几乎是不可能的
。
总部位于英国的OneWeb成立于2012年，于2020年破产，最近由包括英国政府和Bharti
Global在内的财团重新启动。 OneWeb政府事务主管克里斯‧麦克劳克林（Chris
McLaughlin）说，该公司已经从计划中的648颗卫星中发射了110颗卫星。该想法是使588
卫星在任何一次都可以活动。他预计，到今年年底，该公司的网络将为北部纬度地区提供
Internet覆蓋，明年将全面覆蓋全球。
另一个竞争对手是加拿大卫星公司Telesat。首席执行官丹‧戈德堡（Dan Goldberg）说
，与其他卫星不同，它拥有50多年的卫星运行经验。 Telesat不想像Starlink和OneWeb那
样给所有人一个天线。相反，它将提供到电信公司所拥有地面站的连接，然后这些地面站
将以常规方式（例如蜂窝或远程Wi-Fi网络）连接到最终用户。用户不必担心他们如何获
得自己喜欢的互联网连接，并且可以使用手机和其他移动设备来代替专用设备。
Goldberg先生补充说，Telesat将在2023年开始发射其新的298颗低地球轨道宽带卫星，并
计划在2024年前将其全面覆蓋全球。他说，它的星座比竞争对手小的原因之一是它的每颗
卫星都更大，并且在更高（但仍然是低地球）的高度上运行。如果该公司的计划取得成果
，Telesat的卫星之间也将具有基于雷射的高速互连，因此它们可以在空间之间传递彼此
之间的互联网流量，然后再将其发送回更接近其预定目的地的地球。 （Starlink还在测
试其卫星之间基于雷射的通信。）
亚马逊一直对它保持相对沉默的项目库伊珀（Project Kuiper）宣布，将投入100亿美元
启动一个网络，从表面上看，它与Starlink的网络非常相似。尽管该公司尚未宣布其卫星
设计或发射时间表，但为了遵守FCC许可证，它必须在2026年7月之前发射其预期网络的一
半，即大约1600颗卫星。
将来，还有更多的潜在参与者进入太空互联网竞赛：中国宣布计划发射自己的由10,000颗
低地球轨道卫星组成的网络，欧盟也正在考虑建造一颗。几乎没有一个月的时间，又有一
家初创公司没有宣布要在某些市场上进行尝试，包括十几家旨在使用小型卫星连接“物联
网”的初创公司。
Quilty Analytics的合伙人克里斯奎尔蒂（Chris Quilty）表示，目前尚不清楚所有这些
公司能否成功启动其网络，或者一旦成功就可以生存。例如，他自己对Starlink可行性的
分析发现，Starlink的盈利前景在很大程度上取决于削减发送给客户的复杂，昂贵的地面
天线的成本。加入Starlink的499美元前期费用不包括Quilty先生和其他分析师估计的每
根天线的实际成本2,000美元至2500美元。
也就是说，美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）在12月宣布打算向Starlink提供8.85亿美元，如
果该公司满足某些要求，则它可以作为美国农村数字机会基金的一部分，用于在美国连接
房屋。
无数其他麻烦还在等待Starlink及其竞争对手。其中包括使用无线频谱卫星将数据发射到
地球的权利。 OneWeb，SpaceX和另一家卫星通信公司争辩说，应该授予他们对美国某个
无线频段的优先权。这可能意味着这些公司之一（或其未来的竞争对手）的卫星必须在发
现可能的干扰时修改其传输，奎尔蒂先生说。
然后就是电影《重力》中描述的可怕的凯斯勒综合症，在那儿绕行的太空碎片导致失控的
空间堆积。目前，有一些建议，但是关于如何使用地球近地轨道的约束性规则很少。
爱达荷大学网络经理Brian Jemes计划继续使用他的Starlink系统，直到太空垃圾出现。
在爱达荷州莫斯科附近的家中，卫星服务的速度比其本地ISP（通过远程Wi-Fi连接）的速
度快20倍。
Jemes先生在惠普工作了18年，已经建立了32年的网络，他很高兴成为Starlink Beta的一
员。不过，他知道他是否会继续享受如此高速的互联网速度，将取决于Starlink向天空发
射多少颗卫星，以及该服务的受欢迎程度。
他说：“一开始就是有线互联网，直到整个社区都在上面。”
—有关更多《华尔街日报》技术分析，评论，建议和头条新闻，请注册我们的每周新闻。
写信给[email protected]的克里斯托弗‧米姆斯（Christopher Mims）
版权所有c 2020道琼斯公司。保留所有权利。
心得/评论：
马斯克的忙碌程度真的超乎想像
这其实也是他可以一直享受到超乎常人的追捧的原因
严格来说，他不是唯一做过这些梦的人
但是他可能是唯一个去实现并且最接近实现的人
疯狂的世纪初、
沉闷又暗流汹涌的世纪中、
糜烂奢华又幻灭的世纪末。
生在这个时间点真是太有趣了