Posted on 04/27/2016 1:48:50 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
I understood you on the ‘war/way’ thing.
FYI, I know you well enough that you don’t need to explain this kind of thing to me.
(-:
We used to have telescopes that tracked and allowed real-time imaging of NEO stuff.
I think it was Teal Blue and Teal Amber, if memory serves, but not sure.
I hope we still have something at least that good. Should be a whole lot better.
I doubt that that satellite has a nuclear bomb. If it does we need to do something. But a 20 kiloton nuke is too big for a 100 pound satellite in 300 mile high orbit.
Somebody must be selling Faraday cages and heirloom seeds...
If the thrust of the launch vehicle is known and used as a function of orbital insertion velocity and the orbital altitude is known then the mass can certainly be calculated to a close approximation.
True but civilian infrastructure is a whole different story.
The power grid isn’t nearly as hardened as it should be.
That requires knowledge also of the mass of the launch vehicle and duration of the engine burn.
Do we really know that much about the Nork “space program”?
Yup.
Oh I know.
Even in “The Day After” they have an EMP burst before the two ICBM warheads strike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSvWSlmefUU
They were showing EMP as the precursor to a big one even back then.
We at least do by class of launch vehicle. Stage/vehicle length, stage diameter and fuel composition (solid or liquid) can be pretty much compared to known standards. Even an educated guess would tell us the difference between a 2,000 pound payload and something more or less.
The reason I chose 2,000 lbs is that it is the composite internet listed weight of the MK-21 RV/MK-84 (800 lbs) and a primitive control and maneuvering buss estimated at 1,200 lbs.
It is very likely that a long term orbiting system capable of maneuvering would weigh much more because of fuel on board requirements. Also a crude nuke would weigh much more than a MK-21. So we are looking at a class of launch vehicle that would put up something like a 4,000 ++ pound payload into low earth orbit.
For reference, Trident missile puts a 6,200 pound payload into a ballistic arc and does not achieve orbit. Think the NORKS can beat that yet much less achieve orbit with that kind of payload?
“or that any EMP bomb on them was actually made by N Korea ?”
Prudent thought.
It is true, North Korea has been the “whipping boy” of Chinese advanced weapons testing for some time.
China has mastered using international surrogate entities, both corporate and national, for strategic purposes. It’s out of the weapon systems lane, but think - Panama Canal.
But man, this is not a convenient thought for most Americans.
Do you realize how far out a geosynchronous orbit is?
Some 22,000 miles out? -— about 1/10 the distance of the Moon.
Good, then you realize that is not the 300 mile low earth orbit as described in the article.
Right. My point was that there are orbits which would appear stationary from a point on earth. Not that a 300-mile low earth orbit could achieve this.
Right now if they have birds up their threat is more of a potential nuisance to others type of risk than anything. That risk being more space trash. Unless they had lots of help in guidance I doubt they could hit a 500 mile circle on de-orbit with accuracy.
“I am smart enough to know that, if the national command authorities tracked the launch, they would know the point of origin (North Korea) ...”
but apparently not smart enough to realize that what is launched from N Korea could have originated in another country.
I think probably we have ways to detect that sort of threat, and deal with it before it explodes over the conus.
yeah, even with the muslim in chief.
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