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Chinese scientists call for "hard kill" weapon to destroy Elon Musk's Starlink sats

#1
C C Offline
https://www.livescience.com/china-plans-...y-starlink

INTRO: Chinese military researchers have called for the development of a "hard kill" weapon to destroy Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system if it threatens China's national security

The researchers drew attention to Starlink's "huge potential for military applications" and the need for China to develop countermeasures to surveill, disable or even destroy the growing satellite megaconstellation. Their paper was published last month in the journal China's Modern Defence Technology. A translated copy of the paper is available here.

Starlink is a broadband satellite internet network developed by Musk's SpaceX company that aims to beam internet access to customers anywhere in the world (as long as they have a Starlink satellite dish to connect to the satellites). Since the first Starlink satellites were launched in 2019, SpaceX has put more than 2,300 of them into low-Earth orbit, and the company plans to send up to 42,000 satellites into space to form a gigantic megaconstellation.

The Chinese researchers were particularly concerned by the potential military capabilities of the constellation, which they claim could be used to track hypersonic missiles; dramatically boost the data transmission speeds of U.S. drones and stealth fighter jets; or even ram into and destroy Chinese satellites. China has had some near misses with Starlink satellites already, having written to the U.N. last year to complain that the country's space station was forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid "close encounters" with Starlink satellites in July and October 2021.

"A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation's operating system," the researchers, led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, which is part of the Chinese military's Strategic Support Force, wrote in the paper. Hard and soft kill are the two categories of space weapons, with hard kill being weapons that physically strike their targets like missiles and soft kill including jamming and laser weapons.

China already has multiple methods for disabling satellites... (MORE - details)
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#2
Yazata Offline
(May 27, 2022 07:50 PM)C C Wrote: INTRO: Chinese military researchers have called for the development of a "hard kill" weapon to destroy Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system if it threatens China's national security

A "hard kill" weapon is a kinetic energy impactor, essentially a space-bullet. In order to impact a relatively small satellite, a kinetic kill weapon would have to have very precise guidance and a lot of "delta v", ability to change its orbit.

Quote:Starlink is a broadband satellite internet network developed by Musk's SpaceX company that aims to beam internet access to customers anywhere in the world (as long as they have a Starlink satellite dish to connect to the satellites). Since the first Starlink satellites were launched in 2019, SpaceX has put more than 2,300 of them into low-Earth orbit, and the company plans to send up to 42,000 satellites into space to form a gigantic megaconstellation.

If there are 42,000 of those babies, the Chinese would need upwards of 42,000 of their maneuverable precision guided impactors (many would likely miss). Good luck with that, Beijing.

Starlink has already rolled out fairly good beta-service with just 2,300 of them. So even if the Chinese managed to take out 40,000 Starlinks with more than 40,000 complex and costly impactors, Starlink would still retain much of its functionality. It will be extraordinarly survivable.

And once giant reusable Starships are in service, the Space Force could just launch replacement Starlinks hundreds at a time.

I should add that people express alarm at the idea of 42,000 Starlinks in low Earth orbit. Wouldn't that turn space into the equivalent of the freeway at rush hour? It's a reasonable concern.

But the Earth has approximately 197 million square miles of surface area. 197,000,000 / 42,000 = 4,690 square miles per Starlink. That's the equivalent of one Starlink in an area the size of Connecticut. If you're a spacecraft, your chances of accidentally colliding with it will be small. What's more, the Starlinks will be in different shells at different altitudes, and that Starlink will likely be above or below the orbit of your spacecraft.

But imagine that China hits 40,000 Starlinks with its impactors. The Starlinks won't just disappear and cease to exist. They will fragment into many pieces, each of which is a potential space bullet able to destroy spacecraft. So the Starlink constellation isn't the danger so much as trying to shoot down the constellation would be.

Quote:"A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation's operating system," the researchers, led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, which is part of the Chinese military's Strategic Support Force, wrote in the paper.

I wonder how many of their staff were trained here in the United States. When it comes to doctoral admissions and post-doctoral positions at schools like the University of California, places like the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications are imagined to be entirely academic and scientific institutions. But seen from another angle, they are "part of the Chinese military's Strategic Support Force". If these students and researchers were Russian, the shrieking would be deafening. But when they are Chinese, the academic community is silent. In fact if anyone questions it, they will inevitably be called a "racist" and a "bigot".

Quote:Hard and soft kill are the two categories of space weapons, with hard kill being weapons that physically strike their targets like missiles and soft kill including jamming and laser weapons.

Yes. A soft kill approach seems to me to be a far more feasible approach for the Chinese to pursue. But the Russians have already tried to jam the Starlinks in the Ukraine war and so far have failed. SpaceX's ability to evade Starlink jamming has already impressed the Pentagon.
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