In China, scientists are developing ways to counter Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network, considering them a powerful threat. Some of these methods are quite unusual. For example, shooting down Starlink with lasers from submarines that are invisible on radar, or using strike satellites with ion engines, writes the Associated Press.
Chinese scientists, concerned about the potential use of Starlink by adversaries in military confrontation and for espionage, have published dozens of papers in open journals discussing ways to hunt and destroy Musk's satellites.
“As the United States integrates Starlink technology into military space assets to gain a strategic advantage over its adversaries, other countries increasingly perceive Starlink as a security threat in nuclear, space, and cyber domains,” stated scientists from the National University of Defense Technology of China in a 2023 document.
Concerns have intensified after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 demonstrated the battlefield advantages that Starlink satellites can provide, and have been exacerbated by Musk's growing political interests.
Starlink's dominance in space has sparked a global race to create viable alternatives. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, since the first launch in 2019, Starlink accounts for about two-thirds of all active satellites. SpaceX operates more than 8,000 active satellites and plans to launch tens of thousands more in the future.
Starlink claims to operate in more than 140 countries and has recently entered the markets of Vietnam, Niger, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Pakistan. In June, Starlink also received a license to operate in India, overcoming national security concerns and powerful domestic telecommunications interests to tap into a tech-savvy market with a population of about 1.5 billion people.
There are very few “dead zones” on the company's coverage map, except for those in North Korea, Iran, and China.
China openly declares its ambition to create its own version of Starlink to meet both domestic national security needs and compete with Starlink in foreign markets.
The Qianfan company, supported by the Shanghai government, has launched 90 satellites out of approximately 15,000 planned. In November, the Brazilian government announced a deal with Qianfan after Musk entered into a fierce public clash with a Brazilian judge investigating the X case, who also froze Space X's bank accounts in the country.
Photo: AP