Re: Starlink terminals deployed in Ukraine

[Dennis Glatting <dg () pki2 com>]

On Tue, 2022-03-01 at 15:18 -0500, Tom Beecher wrote:
> > Starlink however forgets that Russia does have anti satellite
> > weapons and they probably will not hesitate to use them which will
> > make low earth orbit a very dangerous place when Russia starts
> > blowing up the Starlink birds.    I applaud the humanitarian aspect
> > of providing Starlink service, unfortunately there are geopolitical
> > realities like access to space which is likely to be negatively
> > impacted if and when Russia starts shooting down these birds.   
> > Fortunately if they start shooting down the birds the debris will
> > burn up in a year or so unlike geosync orbit where it would stay
> > forever.
>
>
> Russia is not going to be using up it's anti-sat weapons to take down
> commercial internet birds. Let's use a little common sense here. 

+1

There are a lot of birds which translates to a number of weapons that
are likely an unnecessary expense at a time where the greatest expense
is focused on the ground.



> On Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 2:57 PM Scott McGrath <smcgrath () starry com>
> wrote:
> > Starlink however forgets that Russia does have anti satellite
> > weapons and they probably will not hesitate to use them which will
> > make low earth orbit a very dangerous place when Russia starts
> > blowing up the Starlink birds.    I applaud the humanitarian aspect
> > of providing Starlink service, unfortunately there are geopolitical
> > realities like access to space which is likely to be negatively
> > impacted if and when Russia starts shooting down these birds.   
> > Fortunately if they start shooting down the birds the debris will
> > burn up in a year or so unlike geosync orbit where it would stay
> > forever.
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 1:44 PM Phineas Walton <phin () phineas io>
> > wrote:
> > > This is more of a brand image / marketing stunt for Starlink. A
> > > pretty ingenious way to market which will heavily pay off long
> > > term. To them, this is cheap for how much attention it’s getting
> > > them.
> > >
> > > Phin
> > >
> > > On Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 6:36 PM Crist Clark <cjc+nanog () pumpky net>
> > > wrote:
> > > > So they’re going to offer the service to anyone in a denied area
> > > > for free somehow? How do you send someone a bill or how do they
> > > > pay it if you can’t do business in the country?
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 4:39 PM Jay Hennigan <jay () west net>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > On 2/28/22 16:17, Michael Thomas wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > As a practical matter how does this help? You need to have
> > > > > base 
> > > > > > stations/dishes, right? Can they be beefy ones that can pump
> > > > > out 
> > > > > > gigabytes that would be capable of backfilling the load? Or
> > > > > would it 
> > > > > > need to be multiple in parallel? Wouldn't that bandwidth be
> > > > > constrained 
> > > > > > by the number of visible satellites in the constellation? I
> > > > > wonder if 
> > > > > > they've ever even tested it with feeding into an internet
> > > > > facing router. 
> > > > > > Could tables on the satellites explode?
> > > > >
> > > > > If there aren't fixed Internet-connected earth stations line-
> > > > > of-sight to 
> > > > > the satellite that's serving the remote terminal, Starlink
> > > > > will relay 
> > > > > satellite-to-satellite until a path to an Internet-connected
> > > > > earth 
> > > > > station is in reach.
> > > > >
> > > > >  From the linked article:
> > > > >
> > > > > "Musk has previously stressed Starlink’s flexibility of
> > > > > Starlink in 
> > > > > providing internet service. In September, Musk talked about
> > > > > how the 
> > > > > company would use links between the satellites to create a
> > > > > network that 
> > > > > could provide service even in countries that prohibit SpaceX
> > > > > from 
> > > > > installing ground infrastructure for distribution.
> > > > >
> > > > > As for government regulators who want to block Starlink from
> > > > > using that 
> > > > > capability, Musk had a simple answer.
> > > > >
> > > > > “They can shake their fist at the sky,” Musk said."

-- 
Dennis Glatting
Numbers Skeptic