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The engineers working on SpaceX’s Starlink have listed a number of “hot jobs” that SpaceX is trying to fill during a Q&A session with Reddit’s Starlink community on Saturday.
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SpaceX is taking on numerous roles in design and engineering, they said, and they emailed people to send resumes.
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They also promised improvements to Starlink, which is already offering users speeds of over 160 Megabits per second.
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For example, they were working to reduce outages caused by obstruction of branches or poles near the ground Starlink terminals, they said.
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SpaceX engineers also said that reducing manufacturing costs – and therefore Starlink’s cost to users – was “going well, but this is undoubtedly one of the most difficult challenges we’re facing.”
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX engineers explained Saturday how they plan to improve the aerospace company’s Starlink satellite Internet service – and said they’re looking for people to fill some “hot jobs.”
The engineers hosted an AMA in the Reddit Starlink community to answer questions about the company’s Starlink public beta test, which offers some users speeds of over 160 megabits per second (Mbps).
Engineers said they were working on ways to reduce internet outages caused by clogging of branches or poles near grounded Starlink terminals, but they didn’t go into that. “We are working on some software features that will make this much better and, in the long run, the authorization you will need will decrease as the constellation grows. So it will get much better! ” they said.
They listed various roles in manufacturing design, product design, and software for the Starlink Internet Service, and provided an email address for budding engineers to send resumes to. SpaceX is also taking on antenna engineer, production development engineer, and mechanical engineer roles, they said.
“Starlink is an extremely flexible system and will improve over time as we make the software smarter. Latency, bandwidth and reliability can all be improved significantly – help us get there faster! SpaceX engineers wrote.
SpaceX launched its Starlink public beta test on October 26, after introducing its private beta test in June.
How SpaceX is trying to improve Starlink
The engineers explained how they hope to improve Starlink, which involves a network of nearly 900 satellites broadcasting Internet service to Earth. “We update all of our satellites weekly and send software updates to Starlink antennas, WiFi routers and the phone app every two weeks,” they said.
In response to a question about reducing the production costs of the Starlink kit, SpaceX said, “It’s going well, but this is undoubtedly one of the most difficult challenges we are facing and there are always ways to improve.”
Their comments echo the tweet from Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX November 2, when he stated that keeping terminal costs down is “our most difficult technical challenge”.
The Starlink kit, which includes a tripod, WiFi router, and terminal to connect to satellites, costs $ 499, plus $ 99 for the monthly subscription to the public beta.
Read more:
Texas superintendent reveals how – and why – convinced SpaceX to turn its rural school district into a Starlink satellite internet lab
The Reddit Starlink community so far seems to have been impressed with the Starlink internet service. While SpaceX claims that users should expect speeds of 50 to 150 Mbps, some have consistently reported download speeds of over 160 Mbps.
The maximum speed recorded on a community-compiled list was 208.63 Mbps, in Seattle.
Other Reddit users have posted photos and videos of their Starlink terminal in high-speed wind, deep snow, and freezing temperatures, showing internet speeds reaching 175 Mbps even in extreme weather conditions.
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