Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities • Hacker News Board

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#111

Post by mhoad » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:14 AM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #107

mhoad wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t tell if you’re being cute and trying to carve out some exemption here when it’s clear what I’m talking about I think but let’s operate on good faith. The owner with an 80% voting control of the company has had some very serious issues in judgement lately not limited to the Twitter fiasco but has also made a number of public moves that were very friendly towards what the US has called their biggest national se…

>I can’t tell if you’re being cute and trying to carve out some exemption here when it’s clear what I’m talking about I think but let’s operate on good faith. Translation: "I think you're committing wrongthink to be asking such a question, but I'll magnanimously say 'let's operate on good faith'". >The owner with an 80% voting control of the company has had some very serious issues in judgement lately not limited to…

No post body was provided.

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#112

Post by TMWNN » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:17 AM UTC

mhoad wrote: post #111

TMWNN wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I can’t tell if you’re being cute and trying to carve out some exemption here when it’s clear what I’m talking about I think but let’s operate on good faith. Translation: "I think you're committing wrongthink to be asking such a question, but I'll magnanimously say 'let's operate on good faith'". >The owner with an 80% voting control of the company has had some very serious issues in judgement lately not limited to…

Quoted post unavailable.

Sorry for committing wrongthink in your presence

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#113

Post by DocTomoe » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:21 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #42

georgeg23 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kill vehicles are staged in orbit just like Starlink satellites.. See Brilliant Pebbles.

I think there's a consensus that orbital weapons are bad.

The biggest CO2 polluter in the world is ... the US Military. What makes you think they won't clutter up space with weapons?

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#114

Post by mlindner » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:35 AM UTC

georgeg23 wrote: post #74

rzimmerman wrote: post #68

It sounds like they’re trying to sell two things: 1. Hosted payloads, where DoD entities pay to have something (telescope, Sigint equipment, whatever) strapped on to a starlink satellite with comms all figured out for them. Probably a good deal if your stuff fits on that big flat satellite. SpaceX starlink launches do sway the launch market significantly enough (offering a launch at half othe price or less, beholden…

It's part of this program, https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan... More on Wikipedia: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#Military_capabilities

That doesn't seem related. That's 3 years ago.

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#115

Post by rektide » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:36 AM UTC

Basically proving the Piketty theory of space, that all space efforts are eventually taken over & subsumed by military-governmental big dollar concerns. Unsurprising but definitely one giant leap for SpaceX away from being their own masters, away from being explorers & a venture/adventurers, & towards being a key element of the military-industrial complex. One perhaps with much less congressional hooks than previous M-I-C Complex.

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#116

Post by mlindner » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:39 AM UTC

mike_d wrote: post #109

shostack wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes you wonder, given the sensitivity of this, how the government feels about having Elon at the helm of it given some of his business ties.

They don't care, Gwynne Shotwell runs the company. But I do foresee a future in which the SEC bars Musk from holding any executive position for any number of things he has done.

> They don't care, Gwynne Shotwell runs the company.

This isn't really true in as much as no one person can "run" a company. She acts as in her role as Chief Operations Officer and President of the company. She doesn't set long term vision and she doesn't generally handle projects that are in early incubation.

> But I do foresee a future in which the SEC bars Musk from holding any executive position for any number of things he has done.

We should try to keep our thoughts within the realm of realistic.

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#117

Post by mlindner » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:40 AM UTC

rlt wrote: post #77

poszlem wrote: post #6

One thing that people miss is the fact that in the event of any type of a "big" war between superpowers satellites are going to be heavily affected and probably one of the first targets. Having something like this, having that kind of speed in deploying new satellites is going to be a superpower to the USA.

Kessler Syndrome notwithstanding.

Kessler Syndrome is overused and isn't even relevant in a war context.

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#118

Post by rektide » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:42 AM UTC

7e wrote: post #106

The DoD seems well on its way towards having two more such networks (augmenting the one it already has in existence), without the involvement of SpaceX at all: https://spacenews.com/u-s-to-ramp-up-spending-on-classified-... . Maybe this program was spun up in an attempt to grab those sweet government dollars in 2025.

Thay seemed to mainly cover specific efforts & contracts. All Space Force related.

Personally I feel like this is over narrow. They seem likenthey are just trying to make am acquisition, spend money to have some shit to be in control of.

I feel like DARPA has a much broader & more long-term real effort underway, not about hardware to buy but about how hardware communicates, networks, what things do. Space Based Adaptive Communication Networks (Space BACN) seems to be the real effort afoot right now, IMO, to more broadly define how communication works in space. There's, as I understand, some fairly popular command & control buses for satellites. But this Space BACN seems like a much broader networking initiative, that this Starlink project seems like a proprietary competitor to.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33164023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33307864

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#119

Post by georgeg23 » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 6:44 AM UTC

mlindner wrote: post #114

georgeg23 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part of this program, https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan... More on Wikipedia: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#Military_capabilities

That doesn't seem related. That's 3 years ago.

As the wikipedia article says (SpaceNews reference), the first SpaceX element for the program is finally launching this month (Dec 2022). But yes, it was first announced under the Trump administration in 2019 when the Science article came out.

Re: Starshield: Secured satellite network for government entities

#120

Post by nnx » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 7:13 AM UTC

``` EARTH OBSERVATION Starshield launches satellites with sensing payloads and delivers processed data directly to the user. ```

Never heard of this capability for Starlink before. What kind of sensing payloads can it do? Imaging? Thermal? Since Starlink is low altitude and high density, it would allow almost real-time high-precision surveillance?