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Elon Musk says SpaceX focusing on cyber defense after Starlink signals jammed near Ukraine conflict areas

Hamartia Antidote

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I'm sure the Department of Defense loves to hear this...

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said Friday that his company is now focusing on cyber defense and overcoming signal jamming of its Starlink internet satellites amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.



Musk and SpaceX sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine at the request of a government official after internet service was disrupted across the country by the Russian invasion. A shipment of Starlink ground terminals, which use an antenna and terminal to access the satellite broadband service, arrived in Ukraine by Monday Feb. 28). With the terminals in use, SpaceX is working to keep them online, Musk said.

"Some Starlink terminals near conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time," Musk wrote in a Twitter statement Friday (March 1). "Our latest software update bypasses the jamming."


Musk later said SpaceX is shifting its focus to keeping its Starlink service uninterrupted in Ukraine and likely elsewhere.



"SpaceX reprioritized to cyber defense & overcoming signal jamming," he wrote Friday. Musk quipped that the measures were a bit of unexpected quality assurance work for the Starlink system.


Musk also said the Starlink work "will cause slight delays in Starship & Starlink V2."


SpaceX's Starship is a giant reusable spacecraft designed to use a huge reusable booster called Super Heavy to launch missions into deep space. NASA has tapped the Starship vehicle to land astronauts on the moon for its Artemis program. SpaceX is hoping the launch the first orbital flight of an uncrewed Starship in the next few months. Starlink V2 is SpaceX's next-generation Starlink system that includes laser links between satellites and other enhancements.


After delivering Starlink terminals to Ukraine, Musk cautioned that the system could make its users vulnerable to Russian military attacks.


"Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution," Musk wrote on Twitter Thursday (March 3).


"Turn on Starlink only when needed and place antenna away as far away from people as possible," Musk continued. "Place light camouflage over antenna to avoid visual detection," he added.


On Thursday (March 3), SpaceX sent its latest batch of Starlink satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket. That mission launched 47 new Starlink satellites in orbit from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. To date, SpaceX has launched more than 2,000 satellites into orbit, with plans for an initial megaconstellation of 12,000 to provide global broadband coverage.
 
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That means Russian are controlling the signals over Ukraine. That's impressive. Elen musk tried to be machoman
 
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That means Russian are controlling the signals over Ukraine. That's impressive. Elen musk tried to be machoman


No, SpaceX's Starlink was actually able to get around the Russian jamming

Interesting..because he has high speed data connections he can actually update the software on his satellites easier to deal with issues.

Elon Musk was able to have a video chat with the Ukrainian President about it.

Apparently he simply adjusted the shield frequency
 
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I don't understand how a software update will bypass the jamming? I guess the Russians are jamming the electromagnetic signal itself.
 
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I don't understand how a software update will bypass the jamming? I guess the Russians are jamming the electromagnetic signal itself.
Jamming works by overpowering the target signal with noise. Typically this is done with either broadband jamming (jamming at a range of frequencies) or spot jamming (jamming at a target frequency).

you can bypass directed jamming by changing frequency. you can bypass broadband jamming by increasing your signal amplitude. I'll let you decide whether this is practical in software.
 
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Musk and SpaceX sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine at the request of a government official after internet service was disrupted across the country by the Russian invasion. A shipment of Starlink ground terminals, which use an antenna and terminal to access the satellite broadband service, arrived in Ukraine by Monday Feb. 28).

I though Elon was not taking sides in this conflict. Didn't he tweet something to such effect ?

Musk also said the Starlink work "will cause slight delays in Starship & Starlink V2."


SpaceX's Starship is a giant reusable spacecraft designed to use a huge reusable booster called Super Heavy to launch missions into deep space. NASA has tapped the Starship vehicle to land astronauts on the moon for its Artemis program. SpaceX is hoping the launch the first orbital flight of an uncrewed Starship in the next few months.

Let aside the Moon, when is the uncrewed Mars landing happening ? I thought it was by 2026.
 
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Jamming works by overpowering the target signal with noise. Typically this is done with either broadband jamming (jamming at a range of frequencies) or spot jamming (jamming at a target frequency).

you can bypass directed jamming by changing frequency. you can bypass broadband jamming by increasing your signal amplitude. I'll let you decide whether this is practical in software.

The software probably can do the frequency hopping but the electronics must have the capability to do it too. This is just an internet satellite dish, I don't expect it to have been designed with those capabilities, it's not EECM device on a fighter jet. Besides, even if it is capable of frequency hopping, the satellite uplink should only work on one or a few frequencies, it's not like you just keep changing the frequency and it works. Also the Russians can jam all the frequencies if they want.
 
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An interesting cat and mouse game playing out in real time.
 
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I though Elon was not taking sides in this conflict. Didn't he tweet something to such effect ?



Let aside the Moon, when is the uncrewed Mars landing happening ? I thought it was by 2026.

Some countries asked if he could ban Russian sites from Starlink access...he refused.
 
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