We’ve seen SpaceX’s Starlink expand to boats, planes, and moving cars. But now a Canadian company is working to bring the satellite internet service to drones.
On Wednesday, an Ontario company called RDARS announced it had successfully integrated Starlink into its drone system. The integration paves a way for an RDARS drone to connect to the internet in remote areas, where cellular access may be limited or unavailable.
“One of the main issues facing commercial drone operations is communications outside of urban areas where maintaining sufficient internet connectivity may be challenging,” RDARS says.
To overcome this challenge, the company has been looking at integrating satellite modems into its drone system. But according to RDARS, the equipment is costly and can only supply limited bandwidth. Starlink, on the other hand, uses its own satellite dishes to receive high-speed internet with download rates as high as 350Mbps.
RDARS seems to be adding the Starlink dish to a ground station called Eagle Nest, which can relay data to the company’s Eagle Eye drone while in flight. Through Starlink, the Eagle Nest ground station can communicate with a control center, enabling the user to operate and receive video from the drone.
“Eagle Nest also offers several connectivity features including Wi-Fi, dual cellular, LoS 915MHz, and now—Starlink,” the company said. “With its backup power systems, even in a complete power outage with a lack of cellular coverage, Eagle Nest and Eagle Eye can continue to function and provide situational awareness anywhere in the Starlink global coverage area.”
Founded in 2019, RDARS is developing its drone technology as a security system. If an alarm is triggered at a building, the drone can be deployed to scope out the potential threat by supplying video, giving human security staff a real-time view of the situation.
RDARS’s Chief Technology Officer Jason Braverman told PCMag the company is using SpaceX’s recently released high-performance flat dish to integrate the Starlink access. But for now, the company is remaining mum on the details.
“We will have some media images of Starlink in operation as soon as possible. As you can imagine, we are reluctant to provide exact details,” he said, while adding: “I also cannot comment on specific SpaceX involvement, other than to say they were really helpful."
Although RDARS is installing the Starlink equipment only to the drone’s ground station, Braverman sees potential in adding the Starlink terminal on the drone itself. “I believe one day Starlink antennas will be small enough to put into small quad type drones and even smartphones. You might not get more than 1 to 2mb/s but it will be highly reliable and low latency, which is all a drone needs,” he added.
SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In the meantime, RDARS says it's currently developing its drone system for private and enterprise customers in the US and Canada. Cost was not announced, but Braverman said: "We expect general sales in Q1 2023, we are now doing a number of deployments for our initial customers. Starlink is available as fast as SpaceX can supply them to us, so that will be available immediately."
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