Elon Musk Provides Aid to Beleaguered Ukrainians
On March 5th, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted an instagram video covering a brief Zoom meeting exchange between himself and Elon Musk, days after a shipment of much needed Starlink receiver equipment was sent via truck to war torn Ukraine, as well as some personal tech support from the CEO himself. The two seemed to be having a cheerful conversation, with the President extending an invitation to Musk at the conclusion of the war to discuss other opportunities.
This meeting caps off a week of quick action by Elon on behalf of the Ukrainian people; starting with a plea from the Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister, to a truck loaded with Starlink receivers, and finally to Musk ordering that additional resources be shifted to Starlink cybersecurity to address reports of jamming happening in the region. Here’s how it happened:
“@elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.”
On February 28th, Mykhailo Federov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine tweeted out a call for help to Elon, asking for Starlink stations to be sent to help his people have access to communications which were being blocked by the invading Russian army. Within two days, Musk had managed to get a truck full of new receivers to the Ukrainians. No idea how he managed that; the US government has denied any involvement in the delivery. But that was only the start.
For the next few days, Musk kept to Twitter, giving simple instructions on anything from energy collection to safe handling of the new receivers (as they would likely be a target for the Russians).
“Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution.” The CEO warned. In addition, Elon’s instructions for use of the receivers came from the perspective of potentially making the user a target and had safety in mind: “Turn on Starlink only when needed and place antenna as far away from people as possible.” He added, “Place light camouflage over antenna to avoid visual detection.” And also answered a question about painting the dishes - You can so long as the paint contains no metal particles FYI.
But that’s still not everything, because Elon was also working behind the scenes to shift resources around inside SpaceX to address security and power issues inside the network.
Starting with power concerns, Elon reported that Starlink software was updated, “[...] to reduce peak power consumption, so Starlink can be powered from a car cigarette lighter.” This pairs with mobile roaming being enabled to allow signals to be maintained from a moving vehicle. Very much thinking from a resistance mindset with those updates.
But on March 4th, Musk confirmed in a tweet that another update was required as an apparent cyber attack was causing disruptions in the service. “Some Starlink terminals near the conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time. Our latest software update bypasses the jamming.” he said a day later in response to some questions about the satellites being jammed.
Of course, with all the work being done on the network, it was inevitable that some countries and groups would call for Starlink to block Russian sources - as is happening across the European Union right now. Elon’s response was simple: