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Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

businessinsider.com

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Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#41

Post by renjimen »

adriveatrain wrote: post #30
yardstick wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the op, but just wanted to note various technologies in the past have been inspired by fiction: https://screenrant.com/star-trek-real-life-gadgets/ It’s a symbiotic relationship at times. Eg Computers became a thing, fiction ran with it and made up hand held tablet computers, Tricorders, universal translators etc, which materially (not always exclusively) influence future technology designs and directions. Today…

Are you sure it's not because they are the obvious things?

They seem that way now, but when a computer was the size of a building, perhaps not.

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#42

Post by dbt00 »

kumarvvr wrote: post #28
drivingmenuts wrote: post #2

Pretty soon we’ll just dropping small meteors. Farming them might not be cheap, but we’re not going to run out of them.

Always have been curious about bringing outerspace stuff to earth. Lets say we learn to mine asteroids, wouldnt the extra weight added to earth affect its orbital mechanics in anyway?

The entire asteroid belt weighs less than 5% of the moon, and most of the material would have little economic justification for bringing it down.

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#44

Post by deepsun »

dvh wrote: post #3

I have my doubts. You would have to stop it from orbiting first (8km/s). What kind of rocket would be needed to get 8km/s deceleration of 12 tons on LEO? And it would only gain 10km/s. Why not go directly from the ground then?

Maybe highly elliptical orbits?

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#45

Post by ygra »

kumarvvr wrote: post #28
drivingmenuts wrote: post #2

Pretty soon we’ll just dropping small meteors. Farming them might not be cheap, but we’re not going to run out of them.

Always have been curious about bringing outerspace stuff to earth. Lets say we learn to mine asteroids, wouldnt the extra weight added to earth affect its orbital mechanics in anyway?

Considering that lots of stuff already ends up on Earth from outer space, I doubt it has a meaningful effect. We also throw stuff from Earth into space (the planet does so without us as well).

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#47

Post by l0b0 »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #31
zaro wrote: post #27

But why, there are already more than enough ways to kill people. And yet somehow sane and affordable healthcare is out of reach.

To be fair, coming up with new weapons is a lot simpler than fixing the world's healthcare systems.

In what sense? In the "we have the technology, medicine and money for people to live healthy well into their seventies but we choose to spend it on doomsday machines instead" sense? In the "our armed forces are now so well-equipped and well-funded they would simply take over if we tried to cut funding to reasonable levels" sense? In the "everybody else is an enemy" sense? What a lot of nonsense.

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#48

Post by yardstick »

mtarnovan wrote: post #40
yardstick wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the op, but just wanted to note various technologies in the past have been inspired by fiction: https://screenrant.com/star-trek-real-life-gadgets/ It’s a symbiotic relationship at times. Eg Computers became a thing, fiction ran with it and made up hand held tablet computers, Tricorders, universal translators etc, which materially (not always exclusively) influence future technology designs and directions. Today…

Sure. I just wanted to point out that the linked article describes similar weaponry used by the US in Vietnam, so the point about inspiration from a movie is kinda moot.

Ah right, apologies I missed that! You make a fair comment given the GI Joe movies came out decades after the Vietnam war.

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#49

Post by darkpuma »

pdonis wrote: post #33
darkpuma wrote: post #23

I'm pretty skeptical that the energy dispersed from a tungsten rod impact would be dispersed in a manner similar to a nuclear weapon. That is to say, while they may both be just as energetic, the nuclear bomb might be dumping most of it's energy into thermal radiation while the tungsten rod, I would expect, is dumping a lot of it's energy into shattering bedrock as it burrows half a kilometer deep into the earth's cr…

> I'm pretty skeptical that the energy dispersed from a tungsten rod impact would be dispersed in a manner similar to a nuclear weapon. You're right, it wouldn't. See below. > the tungsten rod, I would expect, is dumping a lot of it's energy into shattering bedrock as it burrows half a kilometer deep into the earth's crust Yes, that's the point: the expected use for these weapons is to hit hardened targets undergroun…

What's to say it would have the desired terminal effects when it hits the underground bunker, instead of simply piercing the bunker and continuing deeper underground? If the underground bunker is built with bulkheads, would one portion of the bunker getting pierced by a rod necessarily turn people in another section into hamburger meat?

Re: Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

#50

Post by aaron695 »

Sounds like fake news

Kinetic energy = 1/2 * m * v ^ 2

1/2 * 10000 kg * 3000 * 3000

45000000000 joules

Tiny Hiroshima was 63 TJ

63000000000000 joules

Hmmmm no, but to lazy to prove - "Lazy Dog projectiles (aka "kinetic bombardment") could reach speeds of up to 500 mph as they fell to the ground and could penetrate 9 inches of concrete"

See mythbusters dime off building for a start, sounds like it wouldn't even kill let alone get into concrete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHxvMLoKRWg

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