SpaceX founder Elon Musk want to recognize if Tongan residents would like him to save them from their potentially month - foresightful internet amnesia . The modest peaceable island nation was the website of a dreadful volcaniceruptionlast weekend that caused mass voidance , widespread electricity loss , and a countrywide internet outage resulting from a badlydamagedsubmarine fiber optic cable . That ’s where Musk comes in .
In atweetreplying to a Reuters clause about the outage , Musk asked , “ Could multitude from Tonga let us know if it is important for SpaceX to send off over Starlink terminal ? ” Here , Musk was referring to SpaceX ’s satellite cyberspace serviceStarlink , which has currently plunge around1,900 satellitesinto orbit . drug user with an active Starlink pole can connect to the company ’s configuration of artificial satellite to , in possibility , achieve download and upload speedsapproachingthat of broadband . Starlink has spring up its capacity in recent class and wasreportedlyon runway for global coverage capableness late last year .
Could people from Tonga let us know if it is authoritative for SpaceX to place over Starlink terminals ?
This long-exposure image shows a trail of a group of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites passing over Uruguay.Photo: Mariana Suarez (Getty Images)
— Elon Musk ( @elonmusk)January 21 , 2022
Though it ’s ill-defined if any Tongan officials have inquire for Musk ’s backing , some others have . One functionary , New Zealand representative Shane Reti , started pressing Musk on the offspring originally this calendar week when he sent aletterrequesting pressing cyberspace tending .
“ I am respectfully ask if you [ Musk ] could see your path please to provide urgent Starlink internet communications to public officials and the good people of Tonga in this moment of indigence , ” Reti ask in his brief appeal to the globe ’s richest man .
Gizmodo reached out to SpaceX for comment but did not immediately hear back . We also tried reach out to Tonga ’s Prime Minister ’s office for more point but were unable to make contact .
I guess Elon Musk can only say no and if you do n’t postulate you do n’t do it . After the Minister told me in a speech sound call on Monday that the telecommunication cable to Tonga was down I directly sent a missive to Elon to see if he would contribute Starlink to the emergencypic.twitter.com/Upg9WijWrq
— Dr Shane Reti ( @DrShaneRetiMP)January 21 , 2022
Local Tongan official are already using limited satellite internet services to communicate with the extraneous world but that overhaul , harmonise toa government closet release . Telephone communication are also flim-flam back on . However , most Tongan ’s are stillisolatedfrom the internet and could be for as much as four weeks as resort workers go through the arduous labor of fixing a potential break in the country’ssingle515 - mile ( 830 - klick ) submarine fiber eye line connect it to nearby Fiji .
Nearly a week has passed since the Tonga Hunga Tonga - Hunga Haʻapai volcano explode and the world is still just now getting a clear photograph of the damage . young photos released by the Tongan government ’s societal mediaaccountsshow a alluvion of destruction . Scientists at the Comprehensive Nuclear - Test - Ban Treaty Organization nowclaimthe eruption ’s shockwave was discover in monitoring stations as far away as Antarctica . “It ’s the biggest thing that we ’ve ever seen , ” geophysicist Ronan Le Bras told NPR . NASA scientist , meanwhile , estimatethe eruption was about 10 megaton in size according to NPR . That ’s roughly 500 times more potent than the atomic bomb the U.S. drop on Hiroshima during World War II .
For anyone who forgot , this is n’t the first time Musk has tried to play hero during a well - air crisis event . Back in 2019 , Musk get ahead ill fame byofferingto build amini - submarineto deliverance 12 shaver trapped in a Thai cave .
In that case , Musk ’s thought , which scientists arrogate was n’t practical , never saw the light of Clarence Day . That saga ended with Musk accuse a British underwater diver who finally saved the tike of being a pedophile after the loon mocked Musk ’s rescue efforts . So far , there ’s no word of Musk incriminate any Tongan officials of devious demeanour , which , no matter of whether or not Starlink arrives in the country , is already a welcome improvement .
Elon MuskHyperloopLeadersSPACEXStarlinkTesla , Inc.
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