Elon Musk is a volcano of ideas. In his entrepreneurial career, he has launched – or attempted to do so – online banks (which later became PayPal), affordable electric cars, and flamethrowers.

Today, its main goal seems to be the conquest of Mars by humanity, with the vision of create on the red planet a city of one million earthlings, by 2050.

To achieve this, however, his company SpaceX needs to raise a significant amount of money. The only way is to commercially exploit interstellar space. There are many avenues: from lunar tourism to the delivery of vehicles, supplies, and personnel to large orbiting stations. 

One of the feasible paths is to create a broadband Internet connection that broadcasts its signal from space, thus covering every corner of the planet. And this "dream" is already becoming a reality. This year, the project Starlink has sent in orbit another 60 satellites belonging to this special "constellation" and, as we will see, had already carried out numerous launches in the previous months.

And the idea of a Space Internet Network has made it to the top 10 of the main technological innovations in 2020, according to the MIT.

But what are Musk's ambitions with this project? Let's find out.

Is the solution to the digital divide among the stars?

We are used to taking a broadband connection for granted. But vast areas of the planet are still not covered by this technology and even in Italy we still suffer from a significant digital divide, how Assoprovider has been pointing out for several years. 

Just consider that Internet connections are present, worldwide, only 54.8 percent of households (and in this case we are not talking about broadband, but about the Internet in general). It is better for mobile connection, with 4G set to become the most widespread technology: today it accounts for 44% of the total and is expected to reach 62 by 2023.

However, we know that more than 700 million people have yet to sign a mobile connection contract and will do so in the next seven years: half from the "Asia Pacific" area and just under a quarter from Sub-Saharan Africa.

If we consider that the new "generation" of fast connections is already starting to spread today — with 5G and Ultra Broadband — we understand that the world of global connections is still far from being democratic.

Starlink, Internet among the stars

The Starlink project, along with other companies, aims to revolutionize this scenario and become the main player in broadband connectivity in every corner of the planet.

To achieve this, the company founded by Musk has requested and obtained authorization to launch 12,000 satellites into low Earth orbit – even though the ultimate goal should be to reach 42,000 – to launch its Internet from space. For comparison, in the next decade, the company will send into space 4.5 times more satellites than all of humanity has done since the launch of the first Sputnik.

But we are still far from these figures. With the latest launch in February, the Starlink satellite fleet in orbit is about 300. A number that in any case makes SpaceX is the world's leading company in terms of active satellites.

According to the President and COO of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, the Starlink project will cost 10 billion dollars, if not more. But the company expects an impressive economic return: 30 billion a year, about 10 times more than what the company currently earns with its space rocket business.

The concept of an "orbital" connection is not just a dream of Elon Musk. There are already other companies active in the sector. The main competitor is OneWeb, which in February has launched 34 satellites in orbit with the same objective as Starlink: the company plans to reach 650 by 2021 and then launch its "from space" connection to the general public. Other interested companies include Kepler Communications and the giant Amazon.

The challenge of the "economic" space

Elon Musk's big bet on SpaceX is to make the space business significantly more efficient and cost-effective. The company has, for example, successfully designed and launched the Falcon 9, which is the first space rocket to be at least partially reusable (unlike what has happened so far, with rockets that were completely destroyed during their journeys). The next step, with the already initiated Starship project, is to create a fully reusable vehicle.

Musk's efficient approach is also applied to the Starlink fleet. The entire enterprise is indeed made possible by an incredible reduction in costs. During the Shuttle era, successfully launching a satellite into space cost $24,800 per pound (approximately 0.45 kilograms). A small communications satellite, similar to those sent into orbit by SpaceX, weighed about 4 tons: the total cost of the operation thus amounted to $200 million.

Today, Starlink devices weigh "just" 500 pounds (approximately 227 kilograms). Each Falcon 9 launch costs "only" 1,240 dollars per pound.

Will Musk truly succeed in making high-speed connectivity democratic in every corner of the globe? We will find out in the coming years, but all the premises are there.