SpaceX has launched thousands of satellites into Earth’s orbit and is now exploring similar plans for Mars. The company is proposing that NASA create a Marslink constellation based on its Starlink development to provide communications for future missions to the Red Planet.
During a recent meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, a NASA presentation illustrated three different proposals for establishing communication networks in Mars orbit, Spaceflight Now reports. The proposals included the creation of a Marslink constellation, or “multiple SpaceX satellites placed in Mars orbit to ensure full visibility and interoperability of ground and orbital assets,” the presentation said.
Earlier in September, SpaceX launched the 7,000th Starlink satellite into orbit as part of its growing Internet constellation. Starlink currently operates in 102 countries, and SpaceX plans to expand the network to cover even more regions around the world. In total, the company wants to create a massive constellation of 42,000 satellites in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has also set his sights on Mars, with ambitious plans to not only send human crews to the Red Planet, but also to eventually “colonize Mars” and build permanent habitats on its rugged terrain. Not surprisingly, SpaceX wants to expand its network of Internet satellites to the rest of the world.
NASA’s presentation included two other proposals from Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin. As part of its proposed plan for a relay network around Mars, Blue Origin proposes to use its Blue Ring orbital tugboat, which is designed to provide hosting, transportation, refueling, data and logistics, as well as space cloud computing. The company is preparing to test the Blue Ring as part of the DarkSky-1 (DS-1) mission, which is funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Agency. Although the exact launch date has not yet been determined.
For its proposal, Lockheed Martin proposes to use MAVEN (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN). The NASA spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, was launched in 2013 to study the loss of Mars’ atmosphere. To facilitate communication, the MAVEN spacecraft will be transferred to a communications orbit and will operate similarly to NASA’s Deep Space Network of radio antennas.
The presentation shows that NASA plans to rely heavily on commercial partners in future Mars exploration, hoping that private companies will help the space agency establish a sustainable, long-term human presence on the Red Planet.
NASA is also working to develop its own laser communications for deep space, experimenting with optical communication systems that can transmit data using photons of light. Getting to Mars is only half the battle, the real challenge is to create an infrastructure that can support future human missions to the Red Planet.
