If Elon Musk gets his way, your internet coverage will soon be beamed down from space. The billionaire entrepreneur has requested permission from the US government to test a project which he claims "would be like rebuilding the internet".His plan involves putting thousands of small satellites in Earth's orbit to transmit internet signals to customers all over the globe. If the tests are successful, his proposal states that service could start in five years, according to the Washington Post.Bill Gates first floated the idea of satellite-based internet coverage in the 1990s.But Musk has an asset that even Gates cannot rival - a fleet of rockets. The founder and CEO of SpaceX, the aerospace manufacturer, plans to launch the satellites from a Falcon 9 rocket and link them via antennae to facilities on the West coast of the US.The project has drawn investment from Google and Musk believes using inexpensive satellites in low orbit is a cost-effective model.Richard Branson has partnered with OneWeb which already uses satellites to provide internet to a small number of customers.Musk's plan appears to be that the satellites will relay internet signals to one another so that even the most remote corners of the globe will have access to the web.I f the US government approves his pilot project, tests are slated to begin some time next year. The last two decades of experimentation with satellite-based internet coverage have yielded mostly failure, but Musk contends that his project is different. He hopes the results will be, too. ..