The pigeons, enemies of Elon Musk: why they threaten Starlink, his satellite internet

09/03/2021 11:11

• Clarín.com

• Technology

Updated 09/03/2021 11:11

Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet service, already has 1,700 satellites in orbit.

With an investment of more than

9.5 billion dollars

, the tycoon faces a very particular problem to bring connectivity to remote places in different parts of the world:

pigeons

.

Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey in England, is one of the clients testing Starlink.

This week, he detected an unexpected problem: "

The connection has gone more or less well, but sometimes it lost it for a few seconds. It

may be due to some pigeons that have become fond of perching on the antenna," he explained.

The cuts, he thinks, can be caused by many "pesky pigeons", who "have fallen in love with sitting on the (antenna) dish."

That little gray plate is on the roof of the kitchen and for curious pigeons it is a good place to take a bath or drink water.

The small dish of the antenna receives and sends signals to the passing satellites, part of a constellation of

1,700 that rush over their heads at a height of approximately 550 km

.

They travel fast enough to orbit Earth every 90 minutes or so.

The roof of the expert who had problems with pigeons, in England.

Photo Alan Woodward

Tens of thousands more are planned, but Gwynne Shotwell, president of the aerospace company SpaceX that operates Starlink, admitted that new launches are hurt by shortages of liquid oxygen chips and fuel.

Big disruption

Pigeons use satellites to drink accumulated water.

AFP photo

Professor Woodward is still investigating the root cause of the failures, although one expert told the BBC that "a pigeon sitting on a Starlink antenna would certainly degrade its performance."

However, pigeons have not been the only problem, as this week, a major outage affected Starlink users around the world.

The connection, Professor Woodward said,

"just completely disappeared."

The service, still officially in beta, appears to have been down for about an hour to many users, and Starlink hasn't explained why.

Treating patients with Covid-19 has increased the demand for commercial oxygen, leaving less fuel.

Starlink is one of the companies hoping to offer satellite Internet services.

There are others, like OneWeb, partly owned by the UK, which, like Starlink, already has hardware in space.

The firm launched 34 satellites this week, meaning there are now 288 of the

150kg

objects

in space.

OneWeb's focus is to provide the Internet to businesses, maritime users, and governments.

Many people in remote areas can end up receiving broadband via satellite, whether they know it or not.

The test in Chile

Starlink also reached Latin America.

Reuters photo

Musk will test his Starlink satellite internet network, providing service for a year to two remote and disconnected towns in Chile thanks to an agreement announced Monday by the Chilean government.

Starlink, a project of the space company SpaceX owned by Musk, agreed with the Chilean government to provide satellite internet to

rural

and / or

isolated communities with digital connectivity problems,

through a special permit for the company to carry out its operations without a commercial purpose. , indicated a statement from the Undersecretary of Telecommunications.

"Starlink was designed for remote communities such as Caleta Sierra and Sotomó," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer, in the statement.

Caleta Sierra is a small town located in the Coquimbo Region, more than 400 km north of Santiago, where about 170 people live, mostly dedicated to artisanal fishing, diving and seaweed extraction on its coasts in the Pacific Ocean.

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