Anyone who follows SpaceX knows that Elon Musk always dreams big. It is pretty much clear when you consider his hovering space rockets and even the vacuum-tube mass transit system. And his latest idea proposes to bring the reach of the Internet even farther than it has ever been before.
His latest big idea involves covering both the Earth and Mars with enough satellites to ensure the Internet reaches not only every corner of the Earth, but Mars as well.
Musk plans to launch approximately 700 small satellites to give the planet global Internet coverage that has never before seen. Describing the system as "a giant global Internet service provider," Musk believes he can provide a faster satellite Internet speed than what is currently available.
His plans don't stop there, however. He also wants to extend this coverage all the way to Mars, where he hopes to one day set up a colony. "It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well," Musk says. "I think this needs to be done, and I don't see anyone else doing it."
Musk continues to seek more sources of revenue for SpaceX, in addition to the contracts for space travel it already has. And now Musk believes this system could one day help them fund their long-term mission to Mars.
"We see it as a long-term revenue source of SpaceX to be able to fund a city on Mars."
However, while the concept is novel, not everyone is as excited about this proposal as Musk. The backers of OneWeb, including Virgin chief Richard Branson, believe that Musk does not have the rights to do this.
"I don't think Elon can do a competing thing," Branson says. "Greg has the rights, and there isn't space for another network-like there physically is not enough space. If Elon wants to get into this area, the logical thing for him would be to tie up with us, and if I were a betting man, I would say the chances of us working together rather than separately would be much higher."
SpaceX must tread carefully with some of these ambitions, as satellite makers have a choice as to whose rockets they use to carry their machines into orbit. Thus for the time being, SpaceX plans to focus on building satellites for itself, rather than competing with some of its customers.
"I think we would consider building satellites for ourselves and for other people," Musk says. "We'll start by building ones that address the specific application that we are working on, and then we will be more than happy to sell to other people."
Musk also says that it will take many, many years to have his Internet service up and running.
"People should not expect this to be active sooner than five years," Musk says. And it'll be expensive too: around $10 billion to build. "But we see it as a long-term revenue source for SpaceX to be able to fund a city on Mars."
