Before he started dismantling Twitter in public, Elon Musk had a reputation as a guy who promised to build the future, and delivered a lot of it, but got over his skis even more often . We still haven’t seen the hyperloop tunnels he promised, or the brain implants, or the robotaxis. But it looks like there’s one bit of the future that Musk really has built and isn’t interested in using: A potential power that researchers have identified in his Starlink satellite system. It’s no secret that Ukraine’s military relies heavily on the SpaceX service for a number of critical functions in its fight against Russian troops, including voice and electronic communications, helping fly drones and even correcting artillery fire. But what if the satellites are capable of more than we know? That’s the question Todd Humphreys , an Army-funded researcher at UT Austin, asked and found out — without the billionaire’s blessing. For the past two years, Humphreys and a team of researchers reverse-engineered signals sent from thousands of Starlink internet satellites in low Earth orbit to ground-based receivers, finding that the constellation could form a precise navigation system. What’s more, this powerful new function could, in theory, be set up overnight with just a few tweaks to the system’s software. If true, this would be a very big deal. Right now, the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most prevalent technology used in the global navigation satellite system , a general term describing any satellite constellation that provides positioning, navigation, and timing services on a global or regional basis. It’s reliable enough for a cross-country roadtrip, recording bank transactions or Ukraine’s military fight against Russian troops — but in reality, it could be better. Satellites in the GPS constellation are “ all too susceptible to jamming .” For a system that has an economic impact of about $1 billion a day in the United States alone, that’s a problem. Starlink satellite signals are much wider and have more channels than GPS satellites, making it harder for attackers to disrupt since there are more frequencies to cover. These would offer a reliable backup to GPS and other navigation systems in Europe, Russia and China, according to findings published in a non-peer reviewed paper in October. Also, each Starlink terminal focuses on only one satellite at a time with a narrow beam — so it ignores jamming signals coming from different directions. In contrast, the military has to use costly phased-array GPS antennas to prevent its receivers from “pulling in everything above it,” such as jamming signals, Humphreys told us. If put into operation, Starlink satellites could provide a low-cost and highly accurate navigation service resistant to jamming from adversaries. Humphreys told POLITICO that he’s heard from Defense Department leaders who have an “increased interest” in Starlink “because they recognize additional value that they might not have seen before.” Asked to confirm that, spokespeople for the Air Force and the Department of Defense referred us to SpaceX; the company did not respond to a request for comment. Musk does know about the study, and took it as an opportunity to toot his own horn. Starlink can “obviously offer far more robust positioning than GPS, as it will have ~1000X more satellites over time,” he tweeted in response to the study , adding that his service would also have a much stronger signal. But it’s “just not today’s problem.” Before the paper’s release, Humphreys says he sent the findings to his contacts at SpaceX (among them is a former student) as a courtesy, and… crickets. No one’s gotten back to him, and he takes that as a sign that they aren’t pleased that the satellite’s capabilities were revealed. It also suggests that the research and its findings are reputable. “If they wanted this information disclosed, they would have done it,” he said. But it could push the company to see the possibilities around the world if commercial production was undertaken, though it would be costly and take years. Still, it could be a worthwhile undertaking as a public service for areas that don’t always have a reliable satellite connection — which often happens during conflicts such as the war in Ukraine — even though it wouldn’t be profitable. That’s Musk’s issue with the potential undertaking, the researcher said. “I'm completely convinced that it would be valuable as a backup to GPS as a service to the world,” Humphreys said, characterizing it as “a real revolution that's happening right from our eyes.” “Whether it's monetizable is a different question.”
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