Chinese researchers suggest lasers and sabotage to counter Musk’s Starlink satellites
Roma (AP) -The sparking lasers, supply chain sabotage and special construction attack satellites equipped with ion pushers equipped with secret submarines. These are just a few of the strategies developed by Chinese scientists to counter what Beijing see as a strong threat: ELON Musk ‘ S Starlink Communication Satellites Armada.
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Chinese researchers believe that Starlink, a large constellation of the low orbit satellites, which is cheap, fast and everywhere in remote areas, is a high risk for the Chinese government and strategic interests. This fear was mostly directed by the company’s close ties with the US intelligence and defense organization and its growing global footprint.
“The United States integrates Starlink technology into military field assets, while other countries perceive Starlink as a security threat in nuclear, space and cyber areas,” Chinese Professors from Chinese National Defense University technology in 2023.
Not only Chinese researchers interested in Starlink, but with a certain oddity space -based Communication. Some traditional US allies question the wisdom of executing the basic communication infrastructure – a potential data Trover – by an unsubstantiated foreign businessman.
Russia’s full -scale invasion of 2022 Ukraine deepened after clearly demonstrating the advantages of the war area that Starlink satellites could be conveyed and worsened by Musk’s multiplied political interests.
Musk pumped tens of millions of dollars in President Donald Trump’s re -election efforts, and temporarily appeared as a key consultant and government official. As Elon Musk toys, he attracted an increasing interest in European politics by using the idea of establishing his own political party, as well as a series of harsh and rebellious figures that contradicted the founding politicians.
Musk left the Trump administration in May, and within a few days, his relationship with Trump fell to the public in a case on social media. SpaceX, a rocket launch and space -based communication company founded by Musk and operates Starlink, continues to be inseparable with the US basic government functions. NASA won billions of contract to provide launch services for military satellites, Healing of hired astronauts Create a spy satellite network for the International Space Station and the National Discovery Office.
Starlink’s space domination led to a global struggle to find applicable alternatives. However, the first overwhelming advantage of movement, SpaceX’e close to the monopoly power, muscs and companies united business, politics and national security movements even more complexity.
Starlink dominates the area
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer in the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center, Starlink has taken into account about two-thirds of all active satellites since the first launch in 2019. SpaceX operates more than 8,000 active satellites and finally aims to deploy tens of thousands of people more.
Beijing’s tendency to see Starlink as a means of US military power has sharpened efforts to develop counter -measures to increase the risk of collateral damage to other customers as SpaceX expands its global footprint. The same satellites passing through China continue their paths in the world while serving Europe, Ukraine, United States and other geographies.
Starlink said it has been operating in more than 140 countries and has recently set out in Vietnam, Niger, Somalia, Democratic Congo and Pakistan Republic. Starlink in June He received a license to work To overcome national security concerns and strong indigenous telecom interests in India to open a technology -curious market of technology.
On the company’s own scope map, it has very few dead zones beyond North Korea, Iran and China.
No other country or company is close to catching Starlink. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos targeted Project Kuiper and his rival Musk. He started his first party Internet satellites to orbit in April. So far, Amazon has only 78 satellites in orbit, 3,232 is planned for McDowell, and London -based Eutelstat Oneweb has approximately 650 satellites in the orbit, which is the initially planned fleet.
The European Union spends billions to develop its own satellite series called IRIS2 initiative, but it is left behind. The EU officials had to make lobbying in order not to sign a contract with Starlink while running their own member states.
Christophe Grudler, a French member of the European Parliament, pioneered legislative work in IRIS2, said, iz We are allied with the United States, but we need to have our strategic autonomy. ” “Risk is that our destiny is not in our own hands.”
China is open to the public about the desire to create its own Starlink version to meet internal national security needs and to compete with Starlink in foreign markets. In 2021, Beijing founded the state’s Satnet Company and assigned a megaconstellization with military talents known as Guowang. In December, the company launched its first operational satellites, and now according to McDowell, it has 13,000 orbits that are now planned.
Qianfan, a company supported by the Shanghai government, launched 90 satellites out of approximately 15,000 planned people. In November, the Brazilian government announced an agreement with Qianfan after a Brazilian judge struggling with a Brazilian judge who investigates the X’s bank accounts in the country’s Space X in the country. Qianfan also targets customers in Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, and last year, there are targets of expansion in Africa, which was presented at a space industry conference and published by the Chinese space monitor.
Concerns of Russia to occupy Ukraine
Concerns about Starlink’s superiority were supercharled by Russia’s 2022 full -scale Ukrainian invasion. War was a turning point for strategic thinking about Starlink and similar systems. Ukraine used the Starlink network to facilitate Battlefield Communications and Power Warrior and Discovery Drones and provided a decisive floor game advantage. At the same time, access to satellites was initially checked by a single man, for example, can interrupt critical services, for example, for example Ukrainian attack in the Crimea in Russia.
After a full -scale invasion, US -led sanctions reduced the existence of Western technology in Russia and underlined the geopolitical risks in the nature of relying on foreign actors for access to critical infrastructure.
Nitin Pai, the founding partner and director of the Takshashila Institute, a Bangalore -based Public Policy Research Center, said, Nitin Pai said. “For the last 20 years, we were aware that giving important government contracts to Chinese companies is risky because Chinese companies are operating as extensions of the Chinese Communist Party. Therefore, this is a risk because the Chinese Communist Party can use technology as a leverage against you.
Almost all of the 64 articles about Starlink, who was reviewed by the EP in China magazines, were published after the conflict started.
Evaluating Starlink’s talents and security vulnerabilities
Starlink’s presence and potential military practices annoy Beijing and mobilized the country’s scientists. On paper after paper, researchers carefully evaluated the abilities and security vulnerabilities of a network that a network perceived as threatening and tried to understand what he could learn and mimic from Musk’s company because he tried to develop a similar satellite system of China.
Although Starlink does not operate in China, Musk’s satellites can still sweep the Chinese territory. In 2023, researchers from the Chinese National Defense University simulated the inclusion of Key geographies, including Beijing, Taiwan and polar regions, and determined that Beijing could have covered the day of the day.
“Starlink’s capacity of all regions in the world is developing at stable and high speed,” he said.
In another article, this article, published by the Chinese industrial control systems with-state-supported, mapped the security vulnerabilities in Starlink’s supply chain. In an article dated 2023, he wrote, “The company has more than 140 first level suppliers and a large number of second levels and third level suppliers,” he wrote. “Cyber security control is limited.”
In another 2023 article, engineers of the people of the people of the people suggested to create a satellite fleet on tail Starlink satellites, and to use abrasive materials to damage their batteries or ionicrafts to interfere with signal collection and solar panels.
Even if other Chinese academicians continue to address Beijing in detail in detail, they encouraged them to use global arrangements and diplomacy in a way to include musk: they are already distributing small optical telescopes in commercial production to watch Starlink series. Make up deep Fakes to create imaginary goals. Pull powerful lasers to burn the musk equipment.
Some US analysts say that Beijing’s fears may be exaggerated, but such assessments seem to have done very little to cool the domestic discussion. The title of a Chinese newspaper, simply: “Watch out to Starlink.”
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Chen reported from Washington.
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Regarding the Global Research Team of the AP, Inportative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/
