Re:SpaceX hits two milestones in plan for low-latency satell...
by walrus01 on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @08:18PM
(#16381175)
SpaceX probably could try to do this, but would be faced with a few challenges. As a two way satellite engineer, just off the top of my head:
a) smuggling/importing the rooftop terminal equipment into china
b) if not smuggling, finding a way to use greymarket resources to manufacture the terminals in China
c) making it small enough and easy enough to hide that it can't be obviously spotted/removed from a roof. Google a bit about Iran's periodic and mostly unsuccessful forcible removals of Ku-band TVRO (Rx only) TV satellite dishes for an example. China has a lot more manpower and police-state type resources to deploy to hunt down antennas. If you are faced with the problem of requiring clear unobstructed line of sight to as much of the sky as possible, while also hiding it, you have a technical problem.
d) It is not hard for a police state like China to train relatively unskilled enforcers to use directional spectrum analyzers to hunt down unauthorized rooftop Tx, anywhere from 6 GHz to 80 GHz.
a) smuggling/importing the rooftop terminal equipment into china
b) if not smuggling, finding a way to use greymarket resources to manufacture the terminals in China
c) making it small enough and easy enough to hide that it can't be obviously spotted/removed from a roof. Google a bit about Iran's periodic and mostly unsuccessful forcible removals of Ku-band TVRO (Rx only) TV satellite dishes for an example. China has a lot more manpower and police-state type resources to deploy to hunt down antennas. If you are faced with the problem of requiring clear unobstructed line of sight to as much of the sky as possible, while also hiding it, you have a technical problem.
d) It is not hard for a police state like China to train relatively unskilled enforcers to use directional spectrum analyzers to hunt down unauthorized rooftop Tx, anywhere from 6 GHz to 80 GHz.