Google's Starlink Competitor Won't Trash Space With Thousands Of Satellites

Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced on Monday that it is spinning off wireless communications project Taara into an independent company. Taara transmits data by shooting lasers between terminals mounted on towers planted on terra firma, a far cry from Elon Musk's atmosphere-melting satellites.

Satellite communications constellations today could be compared to highways or nuclear weapons in the 1950s. Every major player on the international stage, including Apple, can't envision a future without it despite the massive investment for development and the potential to destroy large swaths of the planet. Taara's approach would remove the need to constantly replenish a decaying satellite fleet like Starlink.

Taara came to fruition in Google X's Moonshot Factory, the same incubator that birthed Waymo. The project aimed to affordably fill the connectivity gaps in the planet's high-speed internet network. Taara's efforts center around silicon photonic chips, technology that can send and receive data through the air. The system, called Lightbridge, shoots very narrow, invisible light beams between terminals to transmit data at speeds up to 20 gigabits per second over 12 miles.

The Taara Lightbridge is envisioned as a much cheaper alternative to laying fiber optic cables. If it's cheaper than laying a cable, it must be pennies compared to a reusable rocket launch. According to the Verge, the project trailed the system in two densely-populated places where traditional networks would be cost-prohibitive: Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, and the Coachella Festival.

The issues with Starlink, Taara's largest competitor, are becoming evident as its satellite constellation scales up. The fleet has around 6,000 satellites with aspirations of 42,000 boxes swirling around our blue marble. At full scale, there could be as many as 8,000 Starlink sats burning up in the atmosphere every year, which could spew over 1,000 tons of aluminum oxide into the atmosphere. The absurdly high levels of aluminum oxide pollution would deplete the ozone layer, the crucial barrier protecting the planet from the Sun's ultraviolet radiation.

However, Taara wouldn't be able to completely supplant Starlink. Governments see military value in having a satellite communications constellation. The People's Republic of China is developing its own constellation to match the capabilities that Starlink offers the American military. A ground-based system can't provide the same instant global connectivity. For Taara's network to expand, new Lightbridge terminals need to be installed by connectivity is need. Those towers would also quickly become targets during an armed conflict, like airports or bridges.