A space internet project in its early stages has recently secured $650,000 in initial money to work on research and technical evaluations in order to link the Earth, the moon, and possibly Mars with high-speed internet access.
In a press release issued March 17, Aquarian Space said that the financing from Draper Associates is a step toward the company’s ultimate aim of establishing high-speed internet between Earth, the moon, as well as Mars in the coming years, which would be fast enough to transmit 4K video. By 2024, the business hopes to have its inaugural lunar communications system operational.
Solnet service
A statement from Aquarian said that the company’s ambition is to build what it calls Solnet, which would be based on competitive high data rate, high-speed delivery satellite systems that will have rates of 100 megabits per second. In addition to completing technical assessments with numerous firms involved in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Aquarian Space is conducting technical evaluations with additional companies in the United States and abroad that are planning moon missions, according to the company. In support of NASA’s Artemis mission, multiple payloads, landers, and other research equipment are expected to land on the moon later this decade as a result of Commercial Lunar Payload Services.
Among the companies with which Aquarian is collaborating, the company hopes to provide end-to-end data and communication facilities by 2024. While specifics were not disclosed, the company did say, for example, that customers will not be required to change their design in order to adjust Aquarian’s technology. Aquarian ultimately hopes to deploy a space-based service called Solnet, but the company has provided few technical specifics so yet, such as the kind of satellites it wants to employ or the method by which it would get these satellites into orbit, to the public.
In addition to high-speed Internet, Aquarian claims it wants to incorporate space situation monitoring, which will encompass things like scanning for space trash, monitoring space weather, and giving scientific data from the moon or Mars.
