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The Placement of Satellites in SpaceX's Starlink Mission Play an Important Role in its Fast Internet Speed
  • Ishanth Thota
Ishanth Thota
Falls Church, George C. Marshall High School

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

SpaceX's Starlink mission is a well known mission all around the world for its goal of providing a high-speed network with low-latency, to remote areas all around the Earth. As of November of 2023, there are 5,420 Starlink satellites in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is around 200-1600 Km above the Earth. To be more precise, it orbits at exactly 550 Km above sea level, reducing the overall latency. In this study, we studied the patterns in the formation and placement of SpaceX's Starlink satellites so as to get an understanding of the reason behind it. We hypothesized that the Starlink satellites are going to be placed along the latitudinal planes of the Earth in order to maintain a precise and organized network of satellites. And since the gravitational field in the poles is more, we also hypothesized that there might not be as many satellites in the poles as there are in the equator and tropics. Supporting our hypothesis, we found out that there were not a lot of satellites near the poles, one of the reasons being gravity.
20 Jan 2024Submitted to TechRxiv
26 Jan 2024Published in TechRxiv