Hacker News Reader

Comment by pushfoo | Hacker News Reader

> more resilient, both to natural phenomena, equipment failures and sabotage.

I think you're understating the risks from geomagnetic storms. In comparison to satellites, fiber optic cables seem like they'd be relatively unaffected even if the equipment attached to them needs replacement.

View on HN

Currently, you can cut internet connections to most countries with a small deep water sub. China, for example, was busy building one that can be used at 10k+ depth and has arms.

Its widely assumed China, Russia and the US have "kinetic kill" abilities on satellites in space too, its just capabilities are not as widely known. Projects Like the US/Boeing X-37 space drone etc, whose purposes still haven't really been revealed:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

Russia has already demonstrated its satellite destroying tech:

> https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/11/16/russia-blows-up-satell...

Can those be deployed "anonymously" though? Publicly destroying another nation's satellite would be an act of war. Quietly and secretly cutting an undersea cable, while being able to plausibly deflect blame, is a bit safer.

Also, India. List of anti-satellite tests: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368223169/figure/tb...

The problem is that it is fairly difficult to do it cleanly without risking precipitating Kessler syndrome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

It is basically automatic MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) out there in space.

"Kinetic kill" is arguably easier to detect and harder to deny.

I haven't said that we should only focus on sea cables, I said that we should do both so that the overall reliability and resiliency increases.

Perhaps the ocean is protective to some degree, but beyond very short lengths undersea cables have powered repeaters that draw considerable current, and which would plausibly be destroyed if the base stations are too.

I would not say "very short lengths", because undersea cables without powered repeaters (only with optical amplifiers) are possible until a few hundred kilometer.

But you are right that transoceanic cables need powered repeaters.

yeah, but having both means if one is a victim, the other keeps chugging along. a bad anchor drag take out cables? or a sub cut the wire? lasers go pew pew. weather take out lasers? cables go zoom. and in normal operating conditions, both go and increase bandwidth and speed

Are solar storms an issue for LEO sats?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com