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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

#341

Post by nradov »

Revanche1367 wrote: post #307
r_lee wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the commenter never implied that they don't but anyone familiar with how China positions itself knows that they always say things like: "our space stuff is 100% peaceful we dont have any military stuff there, the imperialist West is lying! we are never aggressive, we are only peaceful and defensive" and when someone else does something they always urge them to act according to international law and to not escalate

How many wars has China started in the last century?

Between 5-7, depending on how you count. Although that type of whataboutism is entirely irrelevant to a space arms race.

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

#342

Post by pennomi »

kragen wrote: post #334
mapt wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bullet travels at a relative speed of about 250 to 1250m/s. A ~10g projectile moving that fast has an energy of 600-16000 joules. Everything in low Earth orbit is moving at 7600m/s. A ~10g projectile moving that fast has an energy of 580,000 joules. Getting hit by something moving that fast is roughly equivalent to getting hit by a whole ammo case of bullets at the same speed. There is no armor that can protect you…

This is not correct, and the experiment has been done a number of times with no real effect, most memorably in 01961, when Project West Ford put 480 million copper needles in 3500-km-high medium Earth orbit (MEO); but it's a little bit challenging to understand why. The first reason is that outer space is just inconceivably big, even just the space in low Earth orbit (LEO). LEO has very nearly the same surface area a…

Wouldn’t any needles launched prograde be put into a higher stable (though obviously elliptical) orbit?

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

#343

Post by etc-hosts »

SubmarineClub wrote: post #316
Revanche1367 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many wars has China started in the last century?

Very convenient of you to not include what China is doing in Nepal, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and on the Indian border. And if China hadn’t stuck its dick into the Korean War, the whole peninsula would probably be as prosperous as the south.

[flagged]

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

#344

Post by hajile »

throwitaway222 wrote: post #260
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SpaceX satellites are doing about 1000 collision avoidance maneuvers every single day Genuine question: how many avoidance maneouvres does maritime traffic execute in the open ocean?

I wonder how many collision avoidance maneuvers are performed every day by human drivers. It must be in the trillions.

Loads of those result in crashes with some involving hundreds of cars.

Just one collision in space carries an ever-increasing risk of cascading into a major event with long-term effects (there's no a good way to call in a space wrecker to haul billions of tiny bits out of orbit).

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

#345

Post by antonvs »

antonvs wrote: post #340
kragen wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not correct, and the experiment has been done a number of times with no real effect, most memorably in 01961, when Project West Ford put 480 million copper needles in 3500-km-high medium Earth orbit (MEO); but it's a little bit challenging to understand why. The first reason is that outer space is just inconceivably big, even just the space in low Earth orbit (LEO). LEO has very nearly the same surface area a…

The wires in Project West Ford weighed something like 40 micrograms, with a diameter in the low tens of micrometers. They don’t really fit the criteria of what’s being discussed here - they would not do significant damage to other satellites, and while they could reenter the atmosphere and hit a person, you probably wouldn’t even feel it.

…and for those unfamiliar with this fun project, the idea was to provide a radio relay system that wasn’t easily disabled by an enemy. This was before communications satellites were common.

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

#346

Post by tbugrara »

r_lee wrote: post #295
Revanche1367 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

the commenter never implied that they don't but anyone familiar with how China positions itself knows that they always say things like: "our space stuff is 100% peaceful we dont have any military stuff there, the imperialist West is lying! we are never aggressive, we are only peaceful and defensive" and when someone else does something they always urge them to act according to international law and to not escalate

[dead]

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

#347

Post by kurthr »

Revanche1367 wrote: post #307
r_lee wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the commenter never implied that they don't but anyone familiar with how China positions itself knows that they always say things like: "our space stuff is 100% peaceful we dont have any military stuff there, the imperialist West is lying! we are never aggressive, we are only peaceful and defensive" and when someone else does something they always urge them to act according to international law and to not escalate

How many wars has China started in the last century?

What a weird question, does that include Chiang Kai-shek? or limited to the "communist" party?

You don't remember the '79 Vietnam War? The Chinese one where they invaded North Vietnam with thousands tanks and 10s of thousands on both sides died over the course of months. Relations normalized in '91.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War

China supported the Khmer Rouge, maybe Pol Pot is memorable?

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

#349

Post by willy_k »

lossolo wrote: post #273
chinathrow wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it broke apart by itself?

"The European Space Agency estimates that there have been more than 660 explosions, collisions, or anomalous events resulting in fragmentation. As it stands, there are currently more than 1.5 million space debris objects in Earth orbit. It’s not clear what may have caused the Yaogan-50 (02) satellite to break apart, but it may have been a propulsion or battery failure, or it may have itself collided with another obje…

That doesn’t mean anything. “Sometimes satellites hit things or have problems and blow up. Maybe it hit something and had a problem”.

Edit: Its a perfectly valid response to the question that was asked.

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

#350

Post by AndrewKemendo »

galleywest200 wrote: post #154
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Prehistoric humans get a pass in my book. They seemed to have a cozy life.

Their greed turned a lush world into what you see today
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