SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has offered to help Tonga restore its telecommunications links. Photo / Supplied
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has offered to help Tonga restore its telecommunications links. Photo / Supplied
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded to a National MP's appeal to urgently help Tonga restore its internet connection after the volcanic eruption severed communications.
Dr Shane Reti yesterday published a letter he had sent to Musk, asking for help to provide his Starlink satellite technology to the Pacific country.
The devastating eruption last Saturday damaged an undersea telecommunications cable, which could take a month to repair.
Reti, the National Party's health spokesman, said that he wrote to Musk on Monday asking if he would contribute Starlink to the emergency. The technology uses satellites to deliver internet access to remote locations around the world.
National MP Shane Reti appealed to Musk to deploy his Spacelink technology to Tonga after an underground communications cable was damaged by the eruption. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"I am respectfully asking if you could see your way please to providing urgent Starlink internet communications to public officials and the good people of Tonga in this moment of need."
Reti posted the letter on Twitter, saying Musk "can only say no" and "if you don't ask you don't know".
I guess Elon Musk can only say no and if you don't ask you don't know. After the Minister told me in a phone call on Monday that the telecommunications cable to Tonga was down I immediately sent a letter to Elon to see if he would contribute Starlink to the emergency pic.twitter.com/Upg9WijWrq
"This is a hard thing for us to do right now, as we don't have enough satellites with laser links and there are already geo [satellites] that serve the Tonga region," he wrote on Twitter.
"That is why I'm asking for clear confirmation.'
Dr Ulrich Speidel, a senior lecturer in computer science at the University of Auckland, agreed that using Spacelink in Tonga was near-impossible under existing conditions.
"It's a non-starter," he said.
It would require a link between a ground station in Tonga and a satellite, and another between the satellite and a ground station which was able to access the internet.
"For that to work, you really need to be within about 300 to 400km of such a ground station as the Starlink satellites orbit at an altitude of around 550km, so can't 'see' that much of the planet," he said.
"Starlink currently has no internet-connected ground stations in the tropical South Pacific either. The closest stations would be in New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii.
"In a year, they should have their inter-satellite links working and then the story may be a different one."
He said the best approach would be to give larger satellites to existing ISPs in Tonga, to compensate for the impact of volcanic ash, which causes signal loss.
The country could also get connected via satellites using the medium-earth-orbit network, which used smaller antennas and could provide more bandwidth than the geostationary satellites.
This is a hard thing for us to do right now, as we don’t have enough satellites with laser links and there are already geo sats that serve the Tonga region. That is why I’m asking for clear confirmation.
Tonga has only just begun to re-establish global contact after being completely cut off from the rest of the world following the eruption at the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, 65km north of the capital Nuku'alofa.
Mobile phone company Digicel has re-establishing communications in the country, but lines have been clogged with heavy traffic, leaving many still unable to get through to loved ones.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has offered to help Tonga restore its telecommunications links. Photo / Supplied
Three deaths have been confirmed following the eruption, which also caused a tsunami. There are also reports of injuries but confirmation remains difficult because of strained communications links.
UN officials said 84,000 people - more than 80 per cent of Tonga's population - had been impacted by tsunami and the ashfall.
New Zealand Defence Force Commander of Joint Forces Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour said yesterday there were fears for food security, with reports ash was killing crops.
Ash and seawater have also contaminated water supplies.
Offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, which is carrying a helicopter, technical gear, and teams, has arrived in Tongan waters.
It will scope the shipping channels and wharves at the main port to see if they are safe enough to use to drop off supplies, in time for HMNZS Aotearoa, which is carrying bulk water supplies, and is due today.
"Water is among the highest priorities for Tonga, and the Aotearoa can carry 250,000 litres, and produce 70,000 litres per day through a desalination plant."
Gilmour said staff did not need to set foot on Tonga at all, in an effort to avoid spreading Covid-19 to the currently coronavirus-free country.
