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US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

bbc.com

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Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#111

Post by MSFT_Edging »

mrtksn wrote: post #75
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find it funny here, how out of all the targets "the enemy" could hit, HN-er is afraid they'll hit the datacenters :) You don't need space weapons to hit datacenters, you need one van full of explosives and someone willing to die to deliver it to a datacenter. To temporarily disable them, you just need a cheap drone with some explosives.

Finding someone who is both willing and able to deliver explosives to a datacenter wouldn't be easy, the last stime something like that happen is 9/11. Throwing large masses on the other hand is not so hard as countries like Iran already have missile building capacity and are partners with actual space capable Russia. Also, the super expensive data centers are great targets, probably much better targets than US can h…

There were suspicious rednecks shooting out power stations a couple years ago.

The FBI routinely finds mentally ill people to convince/encourage/fund a terrorist attack and arrest them after they purchase materials with FBI money and call it a sting.

I don't think it's nearly as hard to find someone as you think.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#112

Post by jillesvangurp »

jonkoops wrote: post #8

Space really should be a neutral ground like Antarctica. Especially since the consequences of space debris might trigger the Kessler effect [1], denying humanity future access to low-earth orbit for the considerable future. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

Space is more like international waters legally. The outer space treaty is rooted in maritime law principles. The Chinese and Russians are in no mood to slow down relative to the US. There will likely be some escalation in debris and damage resulting from that might eventually result in some kind of action. But most of the damage here would be economical and sending more stuff up is now very cheap. Manned flight is relatively infrequent and aside from the space station and very short lived space tourism, most activity in space is unmanned.

So, if a lot of satellites get taken out that's a problem but if a few get lost, nobody will care. The space station and other important stuff can be in relatively safe orbits. There's also the notion that a lot of the debris in low earth object comes down pretty quickly. Lots of unstable orbits. LEO is where most of the activity is for things like starlink and competing constellations. Which moderates the risk a bit.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#113

Post by TitaRusell »

Gregkion wrote: post #41
_djo_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, this move is coming after fairly strong evidence that Russia and China have been breaking the treaty by deploying weapons into space for years. Which the US has highlighted many times in the past. At some point you have to acknowledge that the treaty is no longer being respected, and match capabilities to avoid being left at a disadvantage. That said, I'm sure there were tons of people in the US military…

[flagged]

We don't know what the US does. They are just as enigmatic as the Chinese to the point that US Congress is not even allowed to learn about the secret projects.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#114

Post by smackeyacky »

zenbane wrote: post #67
spwa4 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people want laws to not have to face this, and yet systematically refuse to actually do anything when those laws get violated. A law is fundamentally what's enforced, not what's on the paper. Which means if countries vote against any kind of enforcement, like happened here, those laws (whether rights or something else) don't exist. And they don't exist because regular people may shout about them (most don't), but…

This is why culture is important to. You can't legislate morals and ethics.

We’ve seen this doesn’t work nearly as well as the homogeneous culture people would like us to believe. Ambrose Bierce nailed it (paraphrasing) the bible is an excellent book for your neighbour.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#115

Post by hajile »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #112
jonkoops wrote: post #8

Space really should be a neutral ground like Antarctica. Especially since the consequences of space debris might trigger the Kessler effect [1], denying humanity future access to low-earth orbit for the considerable future. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

Space is more like international waters legally. The outer space treaty is rooted in maritime law principles. The Chinese and Russians are in no mood to slow down relative to the US. There will likely be some escalation in debris and damage resulting from that might eventually result in some kind of action. But most of the damage here would be economical and sending more stuff up is now very cheap. Manned flight is r…

SpaceX satellites are doing about 1000 collision avoidance maneuvers every single day. The addition of new networks is going to congest things even more and the risk of unavoidable cascading failure keeps increasing at a massive rate.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#116

Post by AndrewKemendo »

dudefeliciano wrote: post #95
monneyboi wrote: post #89

If we get to try and explain these times in like 30 years to our (grand-)children, I'm sure it will be with a great sense of embarrasment. I hope one of these days we can get our priorities straight.

Do you feel any embarassment coming from the previous generation, which set the stage for what we have now? I think it will be much of the same.

I feel resentment and contempt to every previous generation of humans and embarassment for my generation for sure

Every human on earth should be embarrassed at the state of the anthropocentric world

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#117

Post by WarmWash »

mrtksn wrote: post #61

How is this smart? US was already able to strike any place on the globe, what happens if this motivates the US enemies also have weapons in space and then US mainland becomes strike-able. What was the thing that the US military previously couldn't blow up? The enemy now can have giant piece of hard metal in orbit and blow up previously %100 out of range data centers for example. Very unwise action on US part.

More unwise is doing nothing and letting adversaries have it.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#118

Post by aeve890 »

hn_submit wrote: post #84

In the great power struggle there can be no safe havens. All the world's a stage. And the sky too.

>All the world is a stage

Not really. Most of the cold war nuclear war scenarios only consider nuclear exchange in the northern hemisphere. Until this day there's little strategic value in south America or south Africa. Maybe Australia and new Zealand but still low compared to the north. The Argentinian Patagonia must be the safest place to be in a nuclear winter.

Re: US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

#119

Post by bix6 »

dudefeliciano wrote: post #95
monneyboi wrote: post #89

If we get to try and explain these times in like 30 years to our (grand-)children, I'm sure it will be with a great sense of embarrasment. I hope one of these days we can get our priorities straight.

Do you feel any embarassment coming from the previous generation, which set the stage for what we have now? I think it will be much of the same.

No their heads are in the sand as they exit the stage. Pathetic.
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