China simulated the destruction of Starlink satellites

Chinese researchers conducted a space operation to intercept the Starlink satellite constellation and disable it. Interesting Engineering reported this on Monday, January 13.

It said a team led by Wu Yunhua, director of the aerospace management department of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, showed in a computer simulation how 99 Chinese interceptor satellites destroy about 1,400 Starlink satellites within 12 hours.

“The potential military significance of Starlink has been highlighted in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The militarization of space has increased in recent years, posing a major threat to China’s space security,” Wu’s team said. .

They added that it would be difficult to track the entire array of satellites.

“Precise orbital calculations are needed to maneuver the interceptor satellites and get them close enough to the target. In addition, the energy-intensive equipment on the interceptors, such as lasers, requires sufficient fame of the day to recharge, which makes these tasks even more difficult,” he said about the experiment Woo.

However, he and his colleagues claim to have overcome these obstacles using a binary artificial intelligence algorithm inspired by the fish-hunting method of whales.

“This algorithm helps Chinese satellites work in pairs to effectively hunt down Starlink satellites,” China said.

According to the team, if necessary, their satellites will be ready to destroy targets within two minutes from the moment of command.

On January 10, the American company SpaceX successfully launched a new batch of satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the secret mission NROL-153.