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> or he fears russians will destroy his constellation. How could this be accomplished? Short of magically causing a coronal mass ejection of historic proportio

> or he fears russians will destroy his constellation. How could this be accomplished? Short of magically causing a coronal mass ejection of historic proportion, aimed directly at the earth so that the thermosphere greatly expanded, I do not see how this could be carried out. Starlink is that badass. However, Musk is just embarrassing himself these days though, from first principles. I actually do feel bad for the guy.

dzhiurgis 1y ago
Russia has weapons against satellites. They've tested them very irresponsibly (China too) a decade or so ago.
- consumer451 1y ago
  Sure, but that's against individual Keyhole style sats. Many countries have that capability.[0] The USA has demonstrated the ability to kill a single sat from a USN ship, and a USAF F-15.[1] However, even the USA has no solution for a mega constellation. That's why the CCP is deploying at least 3 different mega constellations, with a planned total of >40,000 satellites. There is no existing kinetic solution for the entirely novel concept of Starlink sized mega constellations in LEO. (actually near "very" LEO which is a significant factor) Take out 10, oh that's nice, we have 10,000 more currently in orbit. Oh, you took out 120 Starlink sats somehow, that's how many we launch per month. Maybe a nuke with chaff? That could create a dead spot that orbits around the world every 90 minutes? Still, not a killer solution, right? Please, anyone feel free to correct me. However, a network engineer could be hungover/bribed/comprimised and push a bad BGP route... that would take down an entire mega constellation network for a bit. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT#/media/File:An_air-to-air_left_side_view_of_an_F-15_Eagle_aircraft_releasing_an_anti-satellite_(ASAT)_missile_during_a_test.jpeg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT#/media/File:An_ai...

dzhiurgis 1y ago

Russia has weapons against satellites. They've tested them very irresponsibly (China too) a decade or so ago.

consumer451 1y ago
Sure, but that's against individual Keyhole style sats. Many countries have that capability.[0] The USA has demonstrated the ability to kill a single sat from a USN ship, and a USAF F-15.[1] However, even the USA has no solution for a mega constellation. That's why the CCP is deploying at least 3 different mega constellations, with a planned total of >40,000 satellites. There is no existing kinetic solution for the entirely novel concept of Starlink sized mega constellations in LEO. (actually near "very" LEO which is a significant factor) Take out 10, oh that's nice, we have 10,000 more currently in orbit. Oh, you took out 120 Starlink sats somehow, that's how many we launch per month. Maybe a nuke with chaff? That could create a dead spot that orbits around the world every 90 minutes? Still, not a killer solution, right? Please, anyone feel free to correct me. However, a network engineer could be hungover/bribed/comprimised and push a bad BGP route... that would take down an entire mega constellation network for a bit. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT#/media/File:An_air-to-air_left_side_view_of_an_F-15_Eagle_aircraft_releasing_an_anti-satellite_(ASAT)_missile_during_a_test.jpeg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT#/media/File:An_ai...