Elon Musk's Starlink satellites are needed more than ever in Ukraine as the conflict between them and Russia continues. Ukraine needs internet service to rally soldiers and volunteers resisting the invasion and tell civilians were to flee or get out the word to the rest of the world.
This hardly escaped Russian President Vladimir Putin's notice, so transmission towers were one of the targets of his soldiers. But Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov took to Twitter to ask the SpaceX CEO for assistance from Starlink to provide the country with a much-needed internet connection.
Elon Musk attends TIME Person of the Year on December 13, 2021, in New York City.
Will Starlink Satellites Work in Ukraine?
In response to Fedorov's tweet, Musk said that Starlink has already redirected their satellite broadband service in Ukraine on Saturday. SpaceX is sending more terminals to the country, Reuters reported earlier. Ukraine's internet service has been disrupted due to the Russian invasion, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Musk tweeted in reply: "Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route."
Starlink satellite technology is undoubtedly costly to deploy but has proven time and time again its usefulness in serving hard-to-reach areas and those that are under crisis, like the island country of Tonga and now Ukraine. On January 15, Musk said that SpaceX already has 1,469 Starlink satellites active, and 272 are moving to orbit soon. However, redirecting Starlink satellites to prioritize Ukraine is not the hard part.
According to IFL Science, each satellite can serve 2,080 users, which is inadequate for serving a population of 43 million. More so, it needs a ground-based terminal that is difficult to deliver to a war zone and makes them operational.
The terminal's performance under optimum conditions is astonishing, but with considerable interference from buildings trees, the challenge of maintaining it at the line of sight is proven to be less efficient. The wind and rain should also be considered factors that can severely affect performance.
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Expert Warns of Safety
But more than internet access, Ukraine also has a big problem in safety as experts feared that Russian soldiers could be targeting the terminals. There have been recent reports of Russian soldiers getting lost due to locals messing with street signs and inaccessibility of Google Maps that might lead them to invade to capture and destroy the terminals.
Starlink terminals look like home television satellite dishes that can provide fast internet services and help Ukraine connect to the world, Reuters recently reported.
But senior researcher John Scott-Railton from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab project posted a friendly warning on Twitter that terminals could become beacons for airstrikes, noting Russia's decades-long satellite communications experience.
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Check out more news and information on Starlink in Science Times.