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MOSCOW, Apr 13 Roscosmos intends to develop a satellite communication technology that allows making calls to a regular mobile phone without the use of subscriber equipment, said the executive director for advanced programs and science of Roscosmos Alexander Bloshenko.
“Starting this year, we are opening work to supplement it (the Berkut-S satellite system — ed.) with another echelon. Today there are many initiatives in the world related to an attempt to get direct access to a mobile phone from satellites and provide a direct communication channel without separate subscriber equipment… This year we are starting work on system designing the appearance of such a group,» Bloshenko said at the Sphere congress in Moscow.
So far, according to him, such technologies in the world allow transferring a small amount of data — roughly speaking, only SMS messages.
As Bloshenko specified later, the new grouping will include «not one, not two» devices — hundreds. They will be launched into orbits approximately two thousand kilometers high.
In August 2022, Elon Musk announced the creation of the Starlink V2 satellite constellation, which will have enough power to pick up a weak mobile phone signal directly, without cell towers, which will get rid of «dead zones» of coverage. The connection speed will be up to four megabits per second, which, according to the developers, is enough to send SMS and messages in instant messengers, and calls will be added in the future.
The Sphere multi-satellite constellation will help provide Russians with the Internet of things, as well as communications in remote Russian territories, in particular, in the Arctic. The developers place particular emphasis on providing communications along the Northern Sea Route. «Sphere» can be compared with Elon Musk's already functioning Starlink system, with the difference that the Russian system of satellites will have fewer, and the functionality is planned to be wider.
The first apparatus of the multi-satellite orbital constellation «Sphere» was launched on October 22, 2022. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched the Skif-D demonstrator satellite into orbit. According to the Spheres project approved by the government, a total of 162 vehicles will be launched into orbit, while the developers want more than 500 satellites.
In total, Sphere needs 180 billion rubles, more than 60% of this amount is planned to be found outside the budget.