Elon Musk

Billionaire SpaceX Corp. founder Elon Musk has already managed to send spaceships into orbit, and now he’s hoping to do the same with Wi-Fi beaming mini-satellites, if he can get the funding.

The Wall Street Journal reports Musk is discussing his latest scheme with former Google Inc., satellite executive Greg Wylera, who is now in charge of WorldVu Satellites Ltd. His company already owns a portion of radio spectrum that could be used for delivering Wi-Fi, and is reported to be looking at sites in Colorado and Florida to build a satellite factory. The WSJ also says Musk and Wylera are looking for a third partner in the venture.

Musk’s plan, which has since been detailed extensively on Wikipedia, calls for a “constellation” of over 700 satellites to be launched into orbit, each weighing less than 250 pounds, which is about half the size of most commercial satellites currently in orbit. Naturally, Musk would launch the satellites using his own Space X rockets, though planning is still in the very early stages. One thing the WSJ does note is the project would likely cost around $1 billion, and Musk would also need to overcome a number of regulatory hurdles to get his satellites off the ground.

In any case, Musk wouldn’t be able to launch until at least the end of the decade. That’s because SpaceX is busy with its more important, revenue-earning obligations to NASA. It’s one obstacle that might give Wyler pause for thought, because WorldVu’s rights to its spectrum bandwidth would need to be renewed by then.

Nevertheless it’s an ambitious plan that underlines just how determined people are to bring affordable Internet connectivity to the masses. Both Google and Facebook Inc., have already announced they’re working on similar plans using a combination of high-altitude balloons, drones and satellites, though these projects are still in their infancy – no one has been able to do it on the scale Musk is proposing.

It’ll be interesting to see if Musk can beat them to it. One would assume that Musk is planning to make money by selling Wi-Fi connectivity, but Google and Facebook’s ventures are primarily aimed at increasing their user bases – if they were to get there first and provide Internet connectivity at little to no cost, it’s difficult to see how Musk could monetize his plans.

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