I’m glad we’re working on replacing starlink, though AFAIK IRIS² won’t be ready until 2027 at the earliest.
I do think that with the increasing use of LEO satellites for drone control and the general breakdown of international agreements and institutions we’re seeing, the moratorium on weapons in space will not last much longer. Every player will work on anti-satellite systems to deny command-and-control links to the enemy.
The anti-satellite weapons we have today are mostly focused on taking down single satellites, and would not be practical against these mass swarms of LEO satellites. We’ll probably see a revival of ideas like EMPs in orbit to knock out large batches of satellites all at once. Obviously such a weapon would be indiscriminate and would take down everything within the blast radius.
…and as IRIS² was supposed to launch with SpaceX, but thanks to Musk-madness we’ll stick with Ariane, VEGA and so on, Arianespace/Airbus can’t believe their luck right now.
They’ve been WAY behind SpaceX and their price offerings, but with the far-right moron Elon shitting around like that, the only rational choice is to launch with our own (old, low-performing) launch systems.
Another reminder: We HAVE to push development in so many sectors we’ve neglected in the past. Same goes for Social Networks. Mastodon and Lemmy are nice, so is pixelfed. But we need an OpenSource, Europe-hosted and -controlled Facebook alternative as well. And we need a proper replacement for PayPal and Amazon for and by Europe as well.
Just as a sidenote: The UK/French OneWeb by Eutelsat is supposed to be ready later this year. So at least there might be another system ready faster…but yeah, LEO problems are still there.
I’m glad we’re working on replacing starlink, though AFAIK IRIS² won’t be ready until 2027 at the earliest.
I do think that with the increasing use of LEO satellites for drone control and the general breakdown of international agreements and institutions we’re seeing, the moratorium on weapons in space will not last much longer. Every player will work on anti-satellite systems to deny command-and-control links to the enemy.
The anti-satellite weapons we have today are mostly focused on taking down single satellites, and would not be practical against these mass swarms of LEO satellites. We’ll probably see a revival of ideas like EMPs in orbit to knock out large batches of satellites all at once. Obviously such a weapon would be indiscriminate and would take down everything within the blast radius.
…and as IRIS² was supposed to launch with SpaceX, but thanks to Musk-madness we’ll stick with Ariane, VEGA and so on, Arianespace/Airbus can’t believe their luck right now.
They’ve been WAY behind SpaceX and their price offerings, but with the far-right moron Elon shitting around like that, the only rational choice is to launch with our own (old, low-performing) launch systems.
Another reminder: We HAVE to push development in so many sectors we’ve neglected in the past. Same goes for Social Networks. Mastodon and Lemmy are nice, so is pixelfed. But we need an OpenSource, Europe-hosted and -controlled Facebook alternative as well. And we need a proper replacement for PayPal and Amazon for and by Europe as well.
Just as a sidenote: The UK/French OneWeb by Eutelsat is supposed to be ready later this year. So at least there might be another system ready faster…but yeah, LEO problems are still there.