The whale algorithm: how China located 1,400 Starlink satellites in 12 hours
The Chinese satellites were able to track down the Starlink devices by accurately imitating whales, thanks to a novel binary AI system.

A group of Chinese researchers managed to locate some 1,400 of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites in just 12 hours. To do so, they used 99 Chinese satellites equipped with lasers and other recognition and tracking devices, according to the South China Morning Post.
“The potential military value of the Starlink systems has been highlighted by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In recent years, the militarization of space has intensified, posing a major threat to China’s space security. It is especially important to track and control its operational status,” explains Wu Yunhua, director of the aerospace control department at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
A few years ago, it was unthinkable to locate such a large satellite constellation and to do this, it was necessary to implement very complex orbital calculations that, even if solved, would be very difficult to execute and put into practice.
According to Space.com, there are currently nearly 7,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, of which 6,874 are operational. However, Elon Musk’s company plans to have at least 42,000 of its satellites in orbit, a figure that worries scientists because they could hinder astronomical observations.
Starlink satellites orbit approximately 550 kilometers above Earth. Now, Chinese satellites have managed to locate 1,200 of them thanks to a binary artificial intelligence algorithm, which is inspired by the whale hunting technique.
The technology mimics the hunting behavior of these animals, which put small fish in their mouths while saving energy, and thus manage to complete complex operations efficiently.
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