Is Starlink just Starlink?

I'm posting this in Skunk Works, because the whole idea sprouted from my imagination when I was doing research for a new short story.
It is not a conspiracy theory, just something I noticed and can't get out of my thoughts. So I'm presenting it here and I'm curious to see what you guys make of it

Some things can be hidden in plain sight with ease, but not satellites, they would be detected immediately. But you can launch satellites and hide the true intentions for them being up there.

While I was looking into Starlink I came across some numbers:
there are currently a little over 4000 starlink satellites in orbit,
SpaceX has been granted permission for 12000 satellites in the near future,
and there is paperwork for up to 40000 satellites in the grid!!!

When I first thought of the starlinks, I imagined satellite trains we can see with the naked eye that fly over, but it isn't only a few 'trains',
it is a full grid. They call it the 'Starlink low orbit constellation'. So I looked up images of this constellation as it is today, with the 4000 satelites, and it looks something like this. (google for more images)

Full network of the Starlink mega-constellation assuming a +grid topology. Figure 1a shows the full network, which is made from repeated patterns . This network assumes that each satellite in limited to four connections due to hardware constraints. The figure also shows the positions of the satellites in the constellation in white, which are distributed evenly across 72 orbital planes with 22 satellites in each plane.

Imagine this "grid" when it is completed with nearly 40k satellites!

So I started wondering, why go through all this effort... for internet connection?
We have a good working Internet grid right here on the ground. Why a plan to launch 40k satellites into orbit, which all connects to each other through 4 connections (and potentially 8 connections) that form a literal grid around the Earth?
Because if it's only for Internet and mobile connection, it really seems like a ridiculous plan, one that has government approval...

When I look at the grid, I can easily see a shield in it, or a global defense system...
a future potential to replace a magnetic field maybe?

Like I said, the idea got shape while writing a fantasy story, and then I thought, there might be some truth in it.
I don't really have a clue about all the tech out there that could be used together with satellites, what can be done with it, etc...
but the potential is there, right?
Or am I seeing things?

What do you think?

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

So I started wondering, why go through all this effort... for internet connection?
We have a good working Internet grid right here on the ground. Why a plan to launch 40k satellites into orbit, which all connects to each other through 4 connections (and potentially 8 connections) that form a literal grid around the Earth?
Because if it's only for Internet and mobile connection, it really seems like a ridiculous plan, one that has government approval...

I don’t doubt that it will be used for other purposes, it actually already has. The signals can be encrypted and used for military communications, like in Ukraine.

But there is a need for supplemental internet outside the normal infrastructure. You can’t get internet in a lot of remote places, we’re going to want robust coverage for (possible) self driving vehicles, and the internet of things.

Next will be satellite 4 and 5g mobile data.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
I don’t doubt that it will be used for other purposes, it actually already has. The signals can be encrypted and used for military communications, like in Ukraine.

Yes, but it appears that Elon Musk doesn't want the network weaponized... perhaps a bit naive on his part.

Last week, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the service, which has been used by Ukrainian forces to control drones, was "never meant to be weaponized," adding that the company had taken steps to curb its use, without spelling out what measures had been taken.

"Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement," Shotwell said.

The news caused uproar in Ukraine, with Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeting that companies had to decide if they were "on the side of Ukraine and the right to freedom" or "on [Russia's] side and its 'right' to kill and seize territories."

www.politico.eu... ure/



@KindraLabelle2 - I agree it's overkill and there must be a bigger plan behind this.

Its just like a plot from Star Gate.

a wepons system to attack space.
but realy to attack any one on earth
They dont like.

one saterlight lasar is not that powerfull.
but with 40k of them!
how many could shoot at just one target?
like Moscow? over 1000 lasers. Burn baby.

and how quick could That shoot down a retaliatory strike?

originally posted by: KindraLabelle2
I'm posting this in Skunk Works, because the whole idea sprouted from my imagination when I was doing research for a new short story.
It is not a conspiracy theory, just something I noticed and can't get out of my thoughts. So I'm presenting it here and I'm curious to see what you guys make of it

Some things can be hidden in plain sight with ease, but not satellites, they would be detected immediately. But you can launch satellites and hide the true intentions for them being up there.

While I was looking into Starlink I came across some numbers:
there are currently a little over 4000 starlink satellites in orbit,
SpaceX has been granted permission for 12000 satellites in the near future,
and there is paperwork for up to 40000 satellites in the grid!!!

When I first thought of the starlinks, I imagined satellite trains we can see with the naked eye that fly over, but it isn't only a few 'trains',
it is a full grid. They call it the 'Starlink low orbit constellation'. So I looked up images of this constellation as it is today, with the 4000 satelites, and it looks something like this. (google for more images)

Full network of the Starlink mega-constellation assuming a +grid topology. Figure 1a shows the full network, which is made from repeated patterns . This network assumes that each satellite in limited to four connections due to hardware constraints. The figure also shows the positions of the satellites in the constellation in white, which are distributed evenly across 72 orbital planes with 22 satellites in each plane.

Imagine this "grid" when it is completed with nearly 40k satellites!

So I started wondering, why go through all this effort... for internet connection?
We have a good working Internet grid right here on the ground. Why a plan to launch 40k satellites into orbit, which all connects to each other through 4 connections (and potentially 8 connections) that form a literal grid around the Earth?
Because if it's only for Internet and mobile connection, it really seems like a ridiculous plan, one that has government approval...

When I look at the grid, I can easily see a shield in it, or a global defense system...
a future potential to replace a magnetic field maybe?

Like I said, the idea got shape while writing a fantasy story, and then I thought, there might be some truth in it.
I don't really have a clue about all the tech out there that could be used together with satellites, what can be done with it, etc...
but the potential is there, right?
Or am I seeing things?

What do you think?

Perhaps its real purpose will be known when everybody is walking around with an Elon Musk Neurolink brain implant?

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

I live between two major cities, in a poorer town. There is fiberoptic internet four or five miles down the road, in a high end community, and to no more than 4000 people in this town (population almost 16,000). Our only options are satellite or cellular, both of which suck if the networks get busy, which they do daily. So yeah, we have a "good working internet grid on the ground" if you're in a major city, or a richer community. If you're in a poorer section of the country, you're screwed. A decent, truly high speed satellite internet connection would be amazing. We had satellite internet for two years under the contract we signed, and when we got home from work in the evening, it was completely unusable for anything other than light browsing.

originally posted by: PokeyJoe


Perhaps its real purpose will be known when everybody is walking around with an Elon Musk Neurolink brain implant?

the hive mind...

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

I live between two major cities, in a poorer town. There is fiberoptic internet four or five miles down the road, in a high end community, and to no more than 4000 people in this town (population almost 16,000). Our only options are satellite or cellular, both of which suck if the networks get busy, which they do daily. So yeah, we have a "good working internet grid on the ground" if you're in a major city, or a richer community. If you're in a poorer section of the country, you're screwed. A decent, truly high speed satellite internet connection would be amazing. We had satellite internet for two years under the contract we signed, and when we got home from work in the evening, it was completely unusable for anything other than light browsing.

I get that better internet is needed in some areas, and that for people like you it's a good thing. Right now the grid is doing exactly what it says it would do. But in the cities, and some rural areas like mine, we do have decent Internet.

So do they really need 40K satellites for just Internet and mobile?

originally posted by: buddha
Its just like a plot from Star Gate.

a wepons system to attack space.
but realy to attack any one on earth
They dont like.

one saterlight lasar is not that powerfull.
but with 40k of them!
how many could shoot at just one target?
like Moscow? over 1000 lasers. Burn baby.

and how quick could That shoot down a retaliatory strike?

I've been planning to re-watch star gate from scratch since I've never seen the ending.

so a weapons system? Like said in the post above, Musk specifically said he never wants it to be weaponized

originally posted by: Encia22

@KindraLabelle2 - I agree it's overkill and there must be a bigger plan behind this.

your a writer, so what plan?

originally posted by: CriticalStinker


I don’t doubt that it will be used for other purposes, it actually already has. The signals can be encrypted and used for military communications, like in Ukraine.

But there is a need for supplemental internet outside the normal infrastructure. You can’t get internet in a lot of remote places, we’re going to want robust coverage for (possible) self driving vehicles, and the internet of things.

Next will be satellite 4 and 5g mobile data.

but can it potentially be used for something else then communications purposes?

We use Starlink. Absolute game changer. Prior to its arrival the best internet connection we could get was about 4mbs down and next to nothing up. There is also literally no mobile signal here either - well, apart from a few bars of 3G in the top field. Mid Wales.

However, I think, potentially, Starlink could be used for many things, good and bad. Great to tie in with Neurolink. Many possible scenario’s.

Ive thought about this before. I think it will be used as a tool in running the one world government with, and establishing a new world order. It will be part of tracking everyone on the planet. It will also link everyone for a new digital monetary system, where every transaction is taxed at a low reasonable tax rate, on the spot.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Starlink, like many satellite systems, is actually quite dependent upon the Earth's magnetic field for defense against high energy cosmic radiation, such as the kind solar flares generate. One of the (implied) reasons for having so many Starlink satellites in the "constellation": redundancy.


But.........

Tinfoil hat on?


Consider a bigger picture. Starlink is one part of Elon Musk's "constellation" of corporations, consider a few of his other companies: SpaceX, Twitter, Neurolink.

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites, which encompass the Earth in an electronic "net", ostensibly to provide high-speed internet service to every corner of the globe continously and without interruption. The internet provides communications via service applications such as Twitter, which Musk fought to purchase, remember, and which he retains, despite it being worth about half (or less) than what he paid for it.

Neurolink, a proposed device to be implanted directly into the human brain, another of Musk's firms, holds out the promise of heretofore impossible cures for many disabled people by augmenting, or even replacing damaged or diseased portions of their brains. It could even, someday allow people to access the internet directly through their minds.

Or perhaps, allow access to people's minds, directly, through the internet?


At any rate, the "link" among Musk's companies, and their relationship to communications, reminds me, rather uncomfortably, of the one-time(?) relationship between Bell Telephone (one of the original massively vertically-integrated corporations) and the US intelligence community.


You might what to reference "The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency" by James Bamford.

See if there might be some interesting parallels.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

There’s a LOT of the world that has no internet at all, or no better than mine. And satellites as small as the Starlink ones don’t last long. There’s a lot of redundancy planned in the number of satellites, so when they lose one there’s already one in place. In February of last year they lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm. Between the first and second generation, over 350 satellites have either deorbited or are in decaying orbits.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

I've put on my tinfoil hat when I started this thread

connecting peoples minds through their chips using the starlink network?
again the hive-mind idea...

you forgot about his AI's...

thanks for the reading suggestions, I'll look into that one of this days

As for the first part of your post,
see, Musk is not an idiot, why put so many dollars and effort in something that is so dependent on a magnetic field, while a lot of science is suggesting that the field is weakening. Not to mention the theories about magnetic shift and the possible implications on our tech, solar weather, etc...

a reply to: Mantiss2021

When you look at it this way, Elon is painting himself quite the Bond villain origin story lol

originally posted by: PokeyJoe
a reply to: Mantiss2021

When you look at it this way, Elon is painting himself quite the Bond villain origin story lol

Well...

Musk did "acquire" Bond's Lotus Esprit submarine.


And..he has claimed that a version of the Tesla sportscar will use cold gas thrusters to help it accelerate, stop, turn....and even Hover!


So, Yeah.

a reply to: buddha

I work with lasers. You would need a massive energy source to use a laser to kill someone or take out a missile/vehicle. I don't think solar power is going to cut it.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

So do they really need 40K satellites for just Internet and mobile?

They’re low earth orbit sats, much smaller than outer space ones. Only so many people can be using a sat at a time. So they have to have a large amount of them.