Roscosmos intends to develop satellite communication technology that allows making calls to a regular mobile phone without using subscriber equipment, said Alexander Bloshenko, Executive Director for Advanced Programs and Science at Roscosmos.
"Starting this year, we are starting work on supplementing it (the Berkut-S satellite system - ed.) with another echelon. Today there are many initiatives in the world related to trying to get direct access to a mobile phone from satellites and providing a direct communication channel without separate subscriber equipment... This year we are starting work on the system design of the appearance of such a grouping," Bloshenko said at the Sphere Congress in Moscow.
So far, according to him, such technologies in the world allow transmitting an insignificant amount of data - roughly speaking, only SMS messages.
As Bloshenko later clarified, the new grouping will include "not one, not two" devices - hundreds. They will be launched into orbits with a height of about two thousand kilometers.
In August 2022, Elon Musk announced the creation of a constellation of Starlink V2 satellites that will have enough power to pick up a weak mobile phone signal directly, without cell towers, which will get rid of the "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 messengers, and calls will be added in the future.
The Sphere multi-satellite grouping will help provide Russians with the Internet of Things, as well as communications in remote areas of Russia, in particular, in the Arctic. The developers place a special emphasis on providing communications on the Northern Sea Route. The "sphere" can be compared with the already functioning Elon Musk Starlink system, with the difference that the Russian satellite system will have fewer satellites, and the functionality is planned to be broader.
The first spacecraft of the Sphere multi-satellite orbital group was launched on October 22, 2022. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket sent the Skif-D demonstrator satellite into orbit. According to the Spheres project approved by the government, a total of 162 spacecraft will be launched into orbit, while the developers want more than 500 satellites.
In total, 180 billion rubles are needed for the "Sphere", more than 60% of this amount is planned to be sought outside the budget.
