Arming Outer Space

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 04:46:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Arming outer space

By Ruth Rosen

Thursday, November 13, 2003

San Francisco Chronicle

sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/13/EDG11308KV1.DTL

LOOK UP at the sky. Imagine space-based weapons orbiting the globe,
ready to zap or nuke any country declared an imminent threat to the
United States.


Lets hear it for unbiased journalism...

All military writing uses buzzwords like "superiority" and
"domination" much the same way the business world uses "networking"
and "win win sitiuation". Its no suprise that the uninformed lefty
press started twitching.

In a sense the idea/fear is sound. Besides the obvious threat to
civilian targets.. A single reasonably hardened orbital platform with
an energy weapon or even just overgrown lawn darts could render every
surface naval vessel obsolete and vulnerable.

If you think space hasn't already been militarized, you are kidding
yourself.

James

.. A single reasonably hardened orbital platform with
an energy weapon or even just overgrown lawn darts could render every
surface naval vessel obsolete and vulnerable.

How do you "reasonably harden" a space craft? You can not hide it.
Couldn't it be shot down by an energy weapon on earth, which could be
hidden until fired?

(Steve Dufour) wrote in message . com...
. A single reasonably hardened orbital platform with
an energy weapon or even just overgrown lawn darts could render every
surface naval vessel obsolete and vulnerable.

It's baloney anyway, because
1. You'd need an extensive network of satellites, due to the facts of
orbital motion.
2. Existing Aegis ships already have the radar capability to track and
shoot down stuff that's way up--enough that the changes required for
THAD (Theatre Area Defense, the Navy's anti-ballistic component) will
require little more than a software upgrade. Not to mention anything
as big as a ship pretty much laughs off an energy weapon.
3. It takes a lot of missile to sink a modern ship. You'd be likelier
to succeed with a ballistic torpedo--but that gets you into some hefty
reentry requirements.


How do you "reasonably harden" a space craft? You can not hide it.

Sure you can. NRO does it all the time. Build of stealth materials,
change orbital positions frequently.

Couldn't it be shot down by an energy weapon on earth, which could be
hidden until fired?

Tom Merkle

. A single reasonably hardened orbital platform with
an energy weapon or even just overgrown lawn darts could render every
surface naval vessel obsolete and vulnerable.

It's baloney anyway, because
1. You'd need an extensive network of satellites, due to the facts of
orbital motion.
2. Existing Aegis ships already have the radar capability to track and
shoot down stuff that's way up--enough that the changes required for
THAD (Theatre Area Defense, the Navy's anti-ballistic component) will
require little more than a software upgrade. Not to mention anything
as big as a ship pretty much laughs off an energy weapon.
3. It takes a lot of missile to sink a modern ship. You'd be likelier
to succeed with a ballistic torpedo--but that gets you into some hefty
reentry requirements.


How do you "reasonably harden" a space craft? You can not hide it.

Sure you can. NRO does it all the time. Build of stealth materials,
change orbital positions frequently.

Cool. I didn't know that. But once if fires its weapon it will no
longer he hidden, seems to me anyway.


Couldn't it be shot down by an energy weapon on earth, which could be
hidden until fired?

Tom Merkle

In article ,
Steve Dufour wrote:
Sure you can. NRO does it all the time. Build of stealth materials,
change orbital positions frequently.

Cool. I didn't know that. But once if fires its weapon it will no
longer he hidden, seems to me anyway.

A common problem with stealth systems. (In particular, a notorious
problem for submarines -- they are very hard to find until they actually
*do* something, at which time their location is momentarily obvious.)
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |

On 23 Nov 2003 07:08:13 -0800, (Steve Dufour)
wrote:

How do you "reasonably harden" a space craft? You can not hide it.

Sure you can. NRO does it all the time. Build of stealth materials,
change orbital positions frequently.

Cool. I didn't know that. But once if fires its weapon it will no
longer he hidden, seems to me anyway.

By then, you may not care. And it may not take long to hide it again.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer