[Starlink] Starlink "beam spread"

[David Lang]

On Wed, 31 Aug 2022, David P. Reed wrote:

> I'm not going to reason from "intersatellite" routing being operational until 
> they offer it in operation. It's feasible, sort of. Laser beam aiming is quite 
> different from phased array beam steering, and though they may have tested it 
> between two satellites, that makes it a "link technology" not a network. (you 
> can steer a laser beam by moving lightweight mirrors, I know. But tracking 
> isn't so easy when both satellites are moving relative to each other - it 
> seems like way beyond the technology base that Starlink has put in its 
> satellites so far. But who knows.

They have been launching laser enabled satellites for a while now. I suspect
that the only way we will really know when they are enabled is when we see
coverage expand to the poles and mid-ocean (unless they make announcements about
it)

I doubt that they would be launching laser enabled satellites that could not
track each other.

David Lang