The fastest data path of the near future will be Low-Earth Orbit satellites with ground-stations plugged in to fast oceanic cable fiber connections.
To get a handle of the combination of oceanic and sky networking, graphing the current state of each onto a globe or cartographic representation is required. Necessary ingredients are data sources for internet fiber infrastructure (used to be TeleGeography), Tor, Starlink groundstations, and network connections/interconnections.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has a satellite dataset of commercial, military, civil, governmental objects in orbit. By far the biggest single owner of satellite infrastructure is SpaceX, for operating the Starlink constellation. Here is a list of other constellation efforts.
Starlink
Starlink is a global infrastructure based on a network of space satellites. A map of current and planned coverage on the web. For more info on the data sources for that map, and techniques for using this data in other projects, read on.
Gateway positions started to be found by diligent carto freaks during COVID-19, and can be found on this Google map, then exported to KML, and then converted to GeoJSON. User-created maps are shared on Reddit, see starlink.sx map and accompanying tech notes. Here is an unofficial SpaceX api project.
Satellite coverage looks to be found for a single point using these methods. Namely, the NORAD General Perturbations (GP) Element Sets, output type is JSON. To read these, one must parse the Space Data Standards. To quote:
standard queries using the Orbit Mean-Elements Message (OMM) that is part of the Orbit Data Messages (ODM) Recommended Standard CCSDS 502.0-B-2 developed by The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) in November 2009. We are recommending the XML format of Version 2.0 of the OMM, as defined in XML Specification for Navigation Data Messages (CCSDS 505.0-B-2) to ensure future compatibility and interoperability.
Jilin-1
There are other satellite constellations besides Starlink, from other countries besides the USA. For instance, China has a 108-strong Jilin-1 constellation, the largest imaging satellite network.
China sets new land to satellite speed record, 10GB link with laser
Known Issues
Space Junk, see formation of.
Earth-based astronomy at risk. See BlueWalker 3 brightness on par with Procyon and Achernar (2023-10-02), and other past incidents and warnings, and attempts to ban megaconstellations of LEO satellites.
Are we changing what our pre-history brain thinks of as the night sky? Will humanity be able to think back to days where the night sky was without humans?
Starlink use in the Russo-Ukrainian War, individual ownership vs. exclusive use, summary arbitration of satellite communications as a tactical advantage.
Commentary
Steve Song, Starlink and Inequality, 2023.
