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Today, we discuss Elon Musk's Starlink satellites lost because of a geomagnetic storm.
We will also introduce China's space technology advancement.
First, let us review what happened to Elon Musk's Starlink project.
On February 2022, SpaceX said it had lost up to 40 Starlink satellites sent into orbit
last week.
In early February 2022, the aerospace company sent 49 Starlink satellites into low Earth
orbit via a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kenndey Space Centre in Florida.
However, up to 40 of those satellites were "significantly impacted" by geomagnetic storms
the following day, the company revealed in a statement issued Tuesday.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, geomagnetic storms are triggered by
disturbances between the earth's magnetic field and the charged particles from the sun,
known as the solar wind.
The company explained that geomagnetic storms had caused the atmosphere to warm and increased
atmospheric drag "up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches."
Atmospheric drag then exerted friction against the motion of satellites, as if a person runs
into a strong headwind, thus slowing down the speed of the satellites to their destination.
SpaceX adjusted the spacecraft's positions, shielding them from the storm and minimizing
drag.
Still, assessments revealed that many newly launched satellites could not reach their
higher, operational orbits.
"Up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth's atmosphere,"
the statement says.
Solar activities generally cause geomagnetic storms.
When eruptions such as solar flares radiate from the sun's surface, waves of plasma and
charged particles can reach the earth through space, disrupting satellites and interfering
with power grids and other electronic infrastructure like telecom equipment.
Interestingly, we have not seen any western media worried about the lost Starlink satellites
generating space junk that reaches the earth's surface.
However, in the middle of 2021, all media in the west, especially in the US and Australia,
talked about the debris of the Chinese rocket that sent China's spacecraft to space.
One guy, a so-called scientist in the US, was even scared of the junk hitting New York.
Up to 40 satellites were lost in space, becoming space junk or dropping to the earth.
They could even threaten other satellites and space stations when lingering or dropping,
but no western media say a word about it.
In 2021, Musk's Starlink satellites approached China's space station twice, posing severe
threats to the station and astronauts inside it.
Now that there are 40 satellites lost in space, we do not know whether the three Taikonauts
need to swing those satellites away like Chinese table tennis players if they encounter them
unexpectedly.
According to Musk, Starlink wants to provide high-speed internet service to all people
on earth with over thousands of Starlink satellites.
Adding tens of thousands of new satellites to the crowded space around the earth could
elevate collision risks and make it more challenging to operate in low-Earth orbit, as there are
neither traffic cops nor lights to direct the traffic.
Also, it is not easy to clean the junk off the space like sweeping the floor, and few
nations can do the cleaning job.
Starlink is committed to a sustainable space environment, adding that this recent accident
"demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the
leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation."
We have not seen any solutions or suggestions from the United States to solve the problem.
Again, the Chinese may offer their hands in this regard, cleaning junks off the orbit
if needed.
On January 22, 2022, a Chinese satellite, SJ-21, grabbed another satellite and pulled
it out of its geosynchronous orbit and into a "super-graveyard drift orbit."
The maneuver sparked concerns about the potential applications of such satellites designed to
inspect and even manipulate other satellites in space.
China's advancement in space technology will make one country nervous, as most, if not
all, of that country's military operations depend on satellites.
Todd Harrison is the director of a CSIS Aerospace Project.
He warns that the Chinese satellite's actions present "more questions than answers," saying
"the intent behind it and what China plans to do with this technology is a more subjective
assessment."
The United States Air Force's China Aerospace Studies Institute published an exclusive report
on SJ-21 in late 2021, shortly after they found an unknown companion that appeared alongside
the Chinese satellite.
The report mentions unverified claims that SJ-21 might have the ability to capture space
debris, which proved to be correct by the findings on January 22, 2022, when it grabbed
an old Beidou satellite with its robot arm.
China's capabilities in orbit have further validated the Pentagon's concerns about China's
rapidly advancing space technology in recent years.
James Dickinson is the commander of the United States Space Command.
He told Congress in 2021 that Chinese satellites like SJ-21 and others "could be used in a
future system for grappling other satellites."
In 2013, there were reports of Chinese satellites using robotic arms to grab other satellites.
Robotic arms on China's Tiangong space station have displayed similar capabilities.
For many years, the US has accused China of stealing space technologies from the United
States.
It even introduced The Wolf Amendment, a law passed by the United States Congress in 2011,
to prohibit the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, from using
government funds to engage in direct, bilateral cooperation with the Chinese government and
China-affiliated organizations, from its activities without explicit authorization from the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the US Congress.
Nearly 11 years have passed since the Worf Amendment came into force.
China has built its space station and unprecedented space cleaners, which the US does not have.
How can China steal something from a country that does not have it?
We cannot say China's space technology already overtakes the US, but we are pretty sure the
Chinese are not far behind the Americans, at least.
China's cleaning technology in space is a big headache for the US military.
Even if the Chinese do not want to launch a space war as US President Reagon did against
the Soviets in the 1980s, the Pentagon is still worried about losing its assets in space
overnight.
Without thousands of satellites in space acting as eyes to overlook the earth, the US military
would be blind in real-world wars.
Both the US military and western media have been exaggerating China's threat in space
for many years, especially about China's hypersonic technology, anti-missile system, anti-satellite
capability, among others.
Now, there are up to 40 Starlink satellites lost in space, and the world is watching.
If Elon Musk can grapple the lost satellites like Chinese satellites, the US space troops
may be relieved that China is not the only cleaning guy in space.
If not, NASA can ask for more funds from Congress to implement space plans A, B, and C, trying
to catch up with the Chinese.
It is 2022 now.
Some people in the west still brag about the trip to the Moon in 1969, but NASA cannot
visit the Moon one more time, half a century later.
If the Chinese stepped on the Moon one day and could not find the US flag and Amstrong's
footstep there, it would be the most fantastic play ever in human history.
In 2009, the Netherlands complained that the moon rock from the US was fake, not the Moon
Rock.
Forty years before, in October 1969, the rock was given as a private gift from then US ambassador
William Middendorf during a visit by the three Apollo 11 astronauts, part of their "Giant
Leap" goodwill tour after the first moon landing.
Let us end the video with some lines from an NBC report titled "Moon rock' in museum
is just petrified wood" on August 27, 2009, citing the Associated Press.
The Dutch national museum said Thursday (on August 27, 2009) that one of its prized possessions,
a rock supposedly brought back from the Moon by US astronauts, is just a piece of petrified
wood.
Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved
the piece was a fake, said the museum will keep it anyway as a curiosity.
"It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," she said.
"We can laugh about it."
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