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Earth-Sun L4 and L5 Lagrange points

I understand these are at 60 degrees ahead of, and behind, Earth (respectively). Does anyone know how much harder it is to keep satellites at other 'offsets' from Earth? Could we realistically also have one at 30 degrees, one at 90 degrees, one at 120 degrees, and one at 150 degrees?

And could it be beneficial to send data via that route? Could they play a role analogous to something like this?:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_communications_repeater
Or would it just be a pointless increase in latency for no benefit?

My uneducated guesses:

1. Starlink's existing provision for Earth could be achieved for Mars too, using a very similar system
2. In some ways, Mars will be easier.
   1. Much thinner atmosphere
   2. Far fewer of the constraints needed to 'play nice' with an existing high-tech civilization, like minimizing reflections of sunlight to the ground, or avoiding radio interference.
3. But the first generation system for Mars will be different in an important way: significantly higher altitude
   1. Thus higher ping times
   2. And fewer satellites than would otherwise be needed for continuous coverage, which in turn means lower total bandwidth capability, and less redundancy, but much cheaper & quicker to set up and maintain.
4. None of the above covers the actual NASA requirement/aspiration for new interplanetary comms (which seems to be referred to as "DRM 4").
   1. For one thing, an in-space laser link that can cover 100s of miles efficiently, is qualitatively different from one that can cover 100s of millions of miles.
   2. But as NASA has already achieved over 6 Mbps across 240 million miles, SpaceX will also be able to create a usable interplanetary link
5. SpaceX will equip some of their Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites, and all of their Marslink satellites, with this qualitatively different, and outward-facing, laser comms tech.
   1. Having, as your endpoints, devices that are orbiting around planets, is disadvantageous in some ways, such as the fact they spend about half the time on the wrong side.
   2. But SpaceX will find a way to make it into an advantage. (Multiple simultaneous connections?)

Any thoughts?

Also, you need a relay capability when the sun is in the way. But are such relays expected to be beneficial even at other times? Will SpaceX find a way to make them beneficial?

P.S. It's interesting that Spaceflight Now did a tweet thread on this NASA presentation, but didn't consider it worth an article. Yet PC Mag made a whole article primarily out of 1/3 of a slide from one of those tweets by Spaceflight Now! (And I'm glad they did!)

Elon may have given them the info

No need. Spaceflight fans (like me!) are supporting and funding what may be the biggest aerospace espionage operation in history by a factor of 10, down in South Texas. With crowdsourced tracking and analysis. Must be beyond the CPC's wildest dreams!

E.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/live/mhJRzQsLZGg
https://ringwatchers.com/
https://sh.itjust.works/post/27492397

And we ain't gonna stop!

starlink availability in Russia

I remember a story coming out about Russians using Starlink but it seemed a bit vague to me. Has anyone reliable actually asserted that SpaceX are significantly underperforming in the job of blocking captured terminals (once notified), or other aspects of the day-to-day operations that the Ukrainians would do if they controlled it themselves?

FWIW, SpaceX seems to deny it. https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1849956344691912873

" … As has been repeatedly confirmed by the Department of Defense, SpaceX has worked (and continues to work) in close partnership with the U.S. Government regarding Ukraine and denial of service to bad actors. …"

Also onboard is the ARTEMOSS experiment, which is pronounced similarly to “Artemis” in a nod to NASA’s Moon-bound program. The acronym stands for “From Antarctica to Space: Molecular Response and Physiological Adaptation of Moss to Simulated Deep Space Cosmic Ionizing Radiation and Spaceflight Microgravity.”

Shouldn't that be FATS:MRPAMSDSCIRSM?

Nestled inside the trunk of the Dragon is a device called CODEX (COronal Diagnostic EXperiment), ... the device will be unpacked and installed using the Canadarm-2 robotic arm.

I've been wondering why this mission couldn't just dock to the zenith port. Could this be why? Is there better access for the arm at the forward facing port? (For those who didn't know, Crew-9 had to relocate Dragon Freedom to the zenith port a couple of days ago, to free up the forward port for CRS-31.)

Just saw this https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1849956344691912873

... As has been repeatedly confirmed by the Department of Defense, SpaceX has worked (and continues to work) in close partnership with the U.S. Government regarding Ukraine and denial of service to bad actors. ...

Yeah. One possibility is that SpaceX were indeed underperforming, and the story was placed to put public pressure on them to improve. (A bit like the 2019-09-27 Bridenstine tweet.)

(And just to be clear, I have many problems and potential concerns about Musk. I'm just saying I'd choose him over, say, a Maoist, or a Stalinist, and over "Burn_The_Right".)

I’m sure he could block the Starlink terminals Russian army is using, if he wanted to try, for example.

I remember a story coming out about Russians using Starlink but it seemed a bit vague to me. Has anyone reliable actually asserted that SpaceX are significantly underperforming in the job of blocking captured terminals (once notified), or other aspects of the day-to-day operations that the Ukrainians would do if they controlled it themselves?

Though at least they've already proved they can relight during a belly flop.

I would not have thought it could float in a different orientation

Me either. But they call that orientation "Stable 1", possibly implying they've accounted for other stable orientations, and some non-stable situations.

Here was the first time I heard that term (with Bob & Doug): https://www.youtube.com/live/tSJIQftoxeU?t=6h29m34s

The commentator then gives some explanation.

Post-splashdown news conference: https://youtu.be/gOUoI-UYi2Y

They mentioned that Cargo Dragon sometimes reuses parachutes, which I didn't know.