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You know both Russia and China are perfectly capable of targeting and destroying satellites, yes?
by cududa 4y ago
You know both Russia and China are perfectly capable of targeting and destroying satellites, yes?
- closewith 4y agoNeither could destroy SpaceX satellites as fast as they can be launched. No State can. The issue would be whether they could cause enough damage to make the orbital plane (temporarily) unusable.
- bpodgursky 4y agoThe Starlink orbit is low enough that it would only be unusable for a year or so I'd imagine. Small debris will drop out quite fast.
- FpUser 4y agoAre those protected from EMP that can kill scores at once?
- MichaelCollins 4y agoThe point of Starship is to launch hundreds at once, several times a week if it goes as planned (that's a few years away.) Forget Mars colonization, the only practical use for such a booster is to fight a war in LEO.
- closewith 4y agoThere's currently more than 3,000 satellites in the constellation. Killing scores or even hundreds isn't enough. The only known EMP weapons that could really impact the constellation is nuclear, and at that point, knocking out Starlink is the least of our worries.
- 42e6e8c8-f7b8-4 4y agoI think a laser mounted on one of their satellites could get the job done. Their militaries may even have that already.
- gpm 4y agoThey have directed energy weapons that could probably destroy individual satellites one at a time faster than they could be launched.
- closewith 4y agoWho does? I think there's a [citation needed] for this claim.
- gpm 4y agoChina does. The probably is there for a reason though, the exact extent of their capabilities is unclear. Here's a citation: https://thediplomat.com/2022/06/chinas-directed-energy-weapons-and-counterspace-applications/ https://thediplomat.com/2022/06/chinas-directed-energy-weapo...
- closewith 4y agoThat's rumour, not a citation. Maybe I'm wrong and directed energy weapons can destroy thousands of satellites in LEO, but it's never been demonstrated by any nation.
- gpm 4y agoIt's a citation that they have them, which is all I claimed definitively. If I could cite the part of the statement after "probably", there wouldn't be a "probably" there. I would not call it rumors. If you'd like a more authoritative citation, here is a DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency, i.e. US military) report cited in the article I cited above: https://www.dia.mil/Portals/110/Documents/News/Military_Power_Publications/Challenges_Security_Space_2022.pdf https://www.dia.mil/Portals/110/Documents/News/Military_Powe...
- jcampbell1 4y agoGo read page 24. It doesn’t say what you are claiming.
- smachiz 4y agoThey could absolutely destroy them fast enough. The also only need to destroy them fast enough that SpaceX finds it economically infeasible to continue launching them or blocking them themselves. I also think that both countries could launch geosync satellites or using existing geosync satellites to just generate a shitton of noise on whatever spectrum Starlink would use. Starlink of course won't get a license for spectrum in either country.
- closewith 4y agoWhat mechanism do you believe they could use to destroy the hundred of satellites necessary to destroy the constellation?
- ceejayoz 4y agoThey'll find it easier, both technologically and diplomatically, to target and destroy Starlink receivers (and their owners) within their borders.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> You know both Russia and China are perfectly capable of targeting and destroying satellites, yes? This would be an act of war and open their birds to retaliatory strikes. Tracking down the receivers and levying draconian punishments on those caught would do the trick. Moreover, from the example of Chinese students abroad, it's unclear access to information would do much.
- stjohnswarts 4y agoChina, I'm not so worried about. At this point though, Putin doesn't have a lot to lose other than his head.
- ctdonath 4y agoA few, yes. Not by the thousands, short of taking ALL satellites out.
- ElectricalUnion 4y ago> Not by the thousands, short of taking ALL satellites out. Kessler syndrome takes care of them all once you generate enough space junk.