{"id":36508,"date":"2025-08-01T03:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T03:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/36508\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T03:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T03:30:11","slug":"chinese-experts-suggest-lasers-and-sabotage-to-counter-elon-musks-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/36508\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese experts suggest lasers and sabotage to counter Elon Musk’s satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stealth submarines fitted with space-shooting lasers, supply-chain sabotage and custom-built attack satellites armed with ion thrusters. <\/p>\n

Those are just some of the strategies Chinese scientists have been developing to counter what Beijing sees as a potent threat: Elon Musk’ s armada of Starlink communications satellites.<\/p>\n

Chinese government and military scientists, concerned about Starlink’s potential use by adversaries in a military confrontation and for spying, have published dozens of papers in public journals that explore ways to hunt and destroy Musk’s satellites, an Associated Press review found.<\/p>\n

\"InIn this image taken with a slow shutter speed, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, arcs across the night sky in January 2022. The rocket carried 49 Starlink internet satellites. (AP)<\/p>\n

Chinese researchers believe that Starlink \u2014 a vast constellation of low-orbit satellites that deliver cheap, fast and ubiquitous connectivity even in remote areas \u2014 poses a high risk to the Chinese government and its strategic interests.<\/p>\n

That fear has mostly been driven by the company’s close ties to the US intelligence and defence establishment, as well as its growing global footprint.<\/p>\n

“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,” professors from China’s National University of Defence Technology wrote in a 2023 paper.<\/p>\n

Chinese researchers are not the only ones concerned about Starlink, which has a stranglehold on certain space-based communications. <\/p>\n

Some traditional US allies are also questioning the wisdom of handing over core communications infrastructure \u2014 and a potential trove of data \u2014 to a company run by an unpredictable foreign businessman whose allegiances are not always clear.<\/p>\n

Apprehensions deepened after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine made clear the battlefield advantages Starlink satellites could convey and have been exacerbated by Musk’s proliferating political interests.<\/p>\n

Musk pumped tens of millions of dollars into US President Donald Trump’s reelection effort and emerged, temporarily, as a key adviser and government official.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Starlink founder Elon Musk’s close ties to US President Donald Trump have worried China and other nations. (Getty)<\/p>\n

As Musk toys with the idea of starting his own political party, he has also taken an increasing interest in European politics, using his influence to promote an array of hard-right and insurgent figures often at odds with establishment politicians.<\/p>\n

Musk left the Trump administration in May and within days his relationship with Trump publicly imploded in a feud on social media.<\/p>\n

SpaceX, the rocket launch and space-based communications company that Musk founded and that operates Starlink, remains inextricably linked with core US government functions.<\/p>\n

It has won billions in contracts to provide launch services for NASA missions and military satellites, recuperate astronauts stranded at the International Space Station and build a network of spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office.<\/p>\n

Starlink’s space dominance has sparked a global scramble to come up with viable alternatives. <\/p>\n

But its crushing first-mover advantage has given SpaceX near monopoly power, further complicating the currents of business, politics and national security that converge on Musk and his companies.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The Starlink satellite system was rapidly adapted to provfide battlefield communications for Ukraine’s military after the 2022 Russian invasion. (AP)<\/p>\n

China worried by Starlink<\/p>\n

Starlink’s omnipresence and potential military applications have unnerved Beijing and spurred the nation’s scientists to action. <\/p>\n

In paper after paper, researchers painstakingly assessed the capabilities and vulnerabilities of a network that they clearly perceive as menacing and strove to understand what China might learn \u2014 and emulate \u2014 from Musk’s company as Beijing works to develop a similar satellite system.<\/p>\n

Though Starlink does not operate in China, Musk’s satellites nonetheless can sweep over Chinese territory. <\/p>\n

Researchers from China’s National Defence University in 2023 simulated Starlink’s coverage of key geographies, including Beijing, Taiwan, and the polar regions, and determined that Starlink can achieve round-the-clock coverage of Beijing.<\/p>\n

“The Starlink constellation coverage capacity of all regions in the world is improving steadily and in high speed,” they concluded.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Engineers from the People’s Liberation Army, in another 2023 paper, suggested creating a fleet of satellites to tail Starlink satellites, collecting signals and potentially using corrosive materials to damage their batteries or ion thrusters to interfere with their solar panels.<\/p>\n

Some US analysts say Beijing’s fears may be overblown, but such assessments appear to have done little to cool domestic debate. <\/p>\n

One Chinese paper was titled, simply: “Watch out for that Starlink.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stealth submarines fitted with space-shooting lasers, supply-chain sabotage and custom-built attack satellites armed with ion thrusters. Those are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-36508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}