Elon Musk’s Satellites Send Internet into Distant Chilean Village

After a 30-minute walk and a short boat ride to his school in a distant part of southern Chile, Diego Guerrero can finally get on the internet.

His school is in the small village of Sotomo, around 1,000 kilometers south of capital Santiago. Just 20 families live there. The town can only be reached by boat.

Now, it is one of two places in Chile chosen for a new project to receive free internet for a year. The project is run by billionaire Elon Musk¹, chief executive of SpaceX.

Starlink, a part of SpaceX, aims to send out 12,000 satellites as part of a network to provide internet services around the world,

The plan is important for getting the money that SpaceX needs to pay for Musk's dream of developing a new rocket that can fly paying people to the moon and to try to colonize² Mars.

For Diego, 7, getting online is enough of a dream.

"I really like the internet because we can do homework," he said. "It's faster so we can do more of it."

Greater Opportunities

Diego's father, Carlos, has bigger plans for his son. He hopes the new internet connection will provide his son with more opportunities.

He takes Diego to school daily by boat, often battling the weather. He said, "I didn't have the option of going to school so you do it whatever the conditions, good or bad weather or pandemic, even if it's difficult."

The school's seven students can go online by using personal devices provided by the education ministry³ to help their education.

Their only teacher at the school, Javier de la Barra, said he looked forward to using the internet for professional development.

The signal is received by a satellite dish on top of the school. Another device gives out a wireless⁴ signal to most of the school and outside areas. The plan is to extend it to the rest of the village.

It only works from noon to midnight because of the limited supply of fuel to the generator⁵ that supplies power to the village.

De la Barra said it is still a large improvement to the phone internet connection that a few people in the area use.

The Starlink antennae⁶ was placed in July. Transport and Telecommunications Minister Gloria Hutt attended the ceremony for its start.

She said she hoped Starlink would help those who have lived without the internet. The difficulty of living now without an internet connection became clear when the coronavirus lockdowns left people without good internet struggling to work or study.

Chile has among the highest rates of internet connectivity in South America. Government numbers show that there are 21 million mobile internet connections among its population of 19 million as of March 2021.

As Diego and Carlos know, having mobile internet does not mean you can always get a signal.

Carlos Guerrero said, "What would be great is if all these services could be extended around our community, not just to a small part, so everyone could enjoy them."

Words in This Story

network – n. a system of computers and other devices (such as printers) that are connected to each other

opportunity – n. a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something

pandemic – n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people over a wide area or throughout the world

dish – n. something that is shaped like a shallow bowl

generator – n. a machine that produces electricity

mobile – adj. able to be moved from one place to another

1 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

2 colonize   

v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于

参考例句：

• Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
• Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

5 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

6 antennae   

n.天线；触角

参考例句：

• Sometimes a creature uses a pair of antennae to swim.有时某些动物使用其一对触须来游泳。
• Cuba's government said that Cubans found watching American television on clandestine antennae would face three years in jail.古巴政府说那些用秘密天线收看美国电视的古巴人将面临三年监禁。