Posted on 06/25/2007 3:10:49 PM PDT by blam
Vital satellites sitting ducks for missile attack
13:48 25 June 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Robert Adler
Vital communications and navigation satellites could be more vulnerable to missile attack than previously thought.
After China's deliberate destruction of one of its own satellites in January 2007 (see China comes clean over shot-down satellite), two specialists in infrastructure vulnerability set out to determine whether a rogue state or terrorist group with access to an intermediate-range ballistic missile could also destroy a satellite.
Using a satellite-tracking programme available on the internet, plus some university-level physics, they were able to recreate the Chinese shoot-down - minus, they point out, an actual missile.
"It is doable with basic knowledge and off-the-shelf information," says Adrian Gheorghe, a systems engineer at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia, US, one of the duo that published the study. "Somebody can destroy your satellites."
Simulated shoot-down
Gheorghe and colleague, Dan Vamanu, of the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, in Bucharest, Romania, were surprised at how easily they could design and guide a missile to shoot down a satellite in a computer simulation.
There are roughly 550 active satellites orbiting the Earth – necessary for military and civilian communication, navigation, weather monitoring, surveillance, mapping and scientific research.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientisttech.com ...
I guess so, if you know something is up there, where it is, and know where its going to be, and you are a reeeeeealy good shot - it could happen.
Yep. And we don’t have either the ability to build or to launch replacements quickly and inexpensively. I spent 15 years working in the launch systems and payloads business, so I’m not blowing smoke, and neither is the author. Like Rumsfeld said - ya’ go to war with the army (or air force) you have. We also need to develop ASAT capability along with missile defense folks.
I’ve read elsewhere that if enough things get blown up in orbit , a cascade of destruction will happen up there where there is so much junk, nothing will survive up there and the junk will orbit for a very long time preventing anything from orbiting up there until it’s gone.
I’m no expert , so I have no idea if this is plausible.
I don’t work that end but I know it can take 15 years to design and build and test the payload.
How about if you shifted its position minutes before impact?
How about that.
The trick would be to take them all down at once as well as the ABMs in Californian and Greeley and the various Aegis and subs and . . .
If they hit just a few things a ton of things will be coming back right away.
An article last year said that there is evidence that the US is already trying to install stealth radar shielding for spy satellites. Since there are other ways of tracking them besides radar, I’m not sure how much this will help.
THAT is part of the problem (15 years to design, build, test and launch satellites).
Another problem congress :)
NONSENSE!!
It would only happen once and then the launch site and capital city of the offending country would be dust.
China would not dare attack America it would destroy their retain outlet.
Assuming (huge assumption), that capability exists you would have to know which one(s) they are targeting - gunna move them all? Assuming you can of course.
I know that some have the capability for a one shot rocket boost to take it out of orbit (satellite suicide).
Our leaders has the stones for that Over a satellite?
You don’t have to be THAT good of a shot. If you’re mainly concerned with humbling infidels or insuring the continuation of your despotic regimes perks and your linear successors and you don’t care about your nations access to space, you merely need the ability to hump a few hundred pounds of daisy BBs into the rough area of the orbit and the law of averages will eventually, sooner rather than later, do your work for you...
The ChiCom ASAT test was a message to America that the they plan on attacking the network of American satellites if we oppose ChiCom aggression against Taiwan.
While I doubt we nuke a country for taking out our birds, I don't think we would sit idly by while they take multiple shots at them.
Yup!
It’s an act of war and we couldn’t afford to wait to see if they were trying to preemptively blind us prior to initiating an all out attack.
“You don’t have to be THAT good of a shot. If you’re mainly concerned with humbling infidels or insuring the continuation of your despotic regimes perks and your linear successors and you don’t care about your nations access to space, you merely need the ability to hump a few hundred pounds of daisy BBs into the rough area of the orbit and the law of averages will eventually, sooner rather than later, do your work for you...”
The bigger issue is we are not paying attention. While we squabble about whom is in power and trying to force Americans to accept illegal invasion from Mexico, our enemies have taken advantage of the last crop of traitors and are preparing to use that technology we gave them in the mid-nineties to destroy us. The Red Chinese must be howling with laughter at our foolishness. We can’t even get at the truth on security failures such as 911 because traitors on both sides of the political spectrum are covering *ss. Nice country of sellouts we have.
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