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India Shot Down A Satellite. What Does That Mean For The Rest Of The World?
Hotair ^
| 03/27/2019
| Jazz Shaw
Posted on 03/27/2019 8:10:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
There’s a new member of an exclusive space race club this week. India announced that they successfully shot down a small satellite in low Earth orbit. But if you think this is a reason for anyone other than India to celebrate, you’ll probably want to reconsider that idea. (The Independent)
India has shot down a live satellite in space as part of a successful test of new missile technology, prime minister Narendra Modi has announced.
The operation, dubbed Mission Shakti, makes India part of a super league of nations to have achieved such a feat, Mr Modi said, alongside the US, Russia and China.
The announcement comes weeks after India engaged in aerial clashes with Pakistan over the disputed border of Kashmir. This new technology is not directed against any particular country, the prime minister said.
The first two logistical questions that leap to mind have already been answered and this didn’t turn out to be a worst case scenario. India didn’t shoot down somebody else’s live satellite. It was one of their own and it was probably launched fairly recently precisely for this purpose. The other troubling idea was that they were blowing up a satellite and dumping even more high-velocity junk into orbit. They didn’t. This bird was low enough that it will allegedly fall into the atmosphere and burn up in a few weeks.
But even with those concerns out of the way, this is still a troubling development, even if India is one of our allies. The number of countries with anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons technology is increasing. Both Russia and the United States have had this capability since the 80s, and China joined the club in 2007. Now that India has a proven ASAT missile, how long do you suppose it will be before Pakistan, North Korea and Iran will want these toys as well?
The problem is that we’re entering a period when skeet shooting satellites may be seen as an indirect, non-lethal option for a military strike or counterstrike. Since you’re not literally burning up cities and killing lots of people (at least directly), a tense conflict situation could turn into a prolonged game of low-orbit whack-a-mole. And we don’t have any sort of defensive capabilities for our satellites, so the only “proportional response” would probably be to shoot down more of theirs. (Whoever “they” wind up being in this scenario.)
The problem is that we’ve grown so heavily dependent on our fleet of space birds that if a bunch of them start blowing up we’re going to be in serious trouble. GPS stops working at that point and we rely on that for a lot more than just keeping Google Maps updated in our cars. Communications, defense, emergency response, and medical networks are all affected, just to name a few. We’d also be back to guessing where hurricanes are and where they might hit without those capabilities.
The waiting list to build and launch new satellites is ridiculous at this point even with Elon Musk putting up reusable rockets every few weeks. There’s supposedly been a treaty in place for many decades prohibiting this sort of offensive technology, but it seems that’s gone out the window. Unless we want to take a massive technological step backward, we should probably consider getting all the countries with ASAT technology in a room someplace and discussing a new treaty.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asat; india; missionshakti; narendramodi; satellite; spaceexploration; spaceforce
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To: bigbob
It means theres one less satellite... It means one easily tracked satellite has been replaced by thousands of random and untrackable bits of satellite shrapnel most of which will eventually fall harmlessly to earth.
The rest? Who knows?
Some of them will hit other satellites generating even more shrapnel. Some of it will have been blasted into higher orbits beyond residual atmospheric drag and will be 'permanently' in orbit.
'Permanently' meaning tens or hundreds of thousands of years before they clear orbit.
41
posted on
03/28/2019 4:10:21 AM PDT
by
null and void
(If socialism is so grand, why are Guatemalans coming here instead of going to Venezuela?)
To: SeekAndFind
India Shot Down A Satellite. What Does That Mean For The Rest Of The World?Do they take requests?
42
posted on
03/28/2019 4:20:29 AM PDT
by
Caipirabob
(Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
To: SeekAndFind
GPS? The satellites for that are hardly in low earth orbit!
I don't think anyone has developed an anti-satellite weapon that can reach geostationary satellites at 22,000+ miles.
43
posted on
03/28/2019 4:28:36 AM PDT
by
Da_Shrimp
(Dum vivimus, vivamus!)
To: Caipirabob
44
posted on
03/28/2019 4:34:31 AM PDT
by
null and void
(If socialism is so grand, why are Guatemalans coming here instead of going to Venezuela?)
To: alpo
“Start selling HeathKits again.
I always wanted their Comanche and Cheyenne combo.”
I had a Heathkit guitar amp (solid state) and an HW-8
I would like to get licensed again and do some QRP but I really haven’t the time. I do listen to the Ham bands and can still copy code (around 16wpm) but the rest of the shortwave experience is almost non existent. Sad really. I grew up listening to shortwave broadcasts from around the world on a trusty old Hallicrafters.
45
posted on
03/28/2019 4:41:48 AM PDT
by
Clutch Martin
(The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
To: Da_Shrimp
I don't think anyone has developed an anti-satellite weapon that can reach geostationary satellites at 22,000+ miles. I don't think they'd tell us.
It would ruin the surprise...
Besides a Kessler Cascade in LEO would throw some debris out to geosynchronous distances. Probably not much of a problem, space is really big and satellites are pretty small.
Still, equatorial Clarke orbit slots are pretty full.
GPS and GLONASS satellites are in closer orbits than geostationary...
46
posted on
03/28/2019 4:48:39 AM PDT
by
null and void
(If socialism is so grand, why are Guatemalans coming here instead of going to Venezuela?)
“The militarization of space puts all of our satellites at risk. The Chinese have been investing lots of money in anti-satellite technology.”
It is my understanding that some of the Chinese technology is very simple, unlike our Star Wars laser beam constellation of whatever is perceived to be up there but doesn’t exist...
The Chinese have developed a much simpler approach. They launch a rocket and the payload is positioned in front of the satellites path upon which it releases a cloud of ball bearings. The targeted satellite cruises through the cloud of ball bearings and it is torn to shreds.
47
posted on
03/28/2019 4:50:40 AM PDT
by
Clutch Martin
(The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
To: Cold Heart
In 1940, the British change street signs in the South of England to confuse and mislead any Germans who invaded.
What’s to stop hackers (if computerized) or comm-jammers from hitting these signals or from putting out false information?
When I was in the Electronic Security Command in Europe, we had a unit, the 6914th, that specialized in the comm-jam mission.
48
posted on
03/28/2019 5:09:24 AM PDT
by
Alas Babylon!
(The media is after us. Trump's just in the way.)
To: SeekAndFind
How do you say hold my beer and watch this in Hindi?
49
posted on
03/28/2019 5:52:32 AM PDT
by
Crucial
To: Rapscallion
That is a very hostile action. Hope they apologize before they get retaliated on. You mean apologize to themselves for shooting down their own sat?
50
posted on
03/28/2019 6:03:00 AM PDT
by
TangoLimaSierra
(To the Left, The truth is Right Wing Extremism.)
To: Dundee
Not good. I’d be interested in seeing what the orbital path of all the debris is. With each year that passes the potential for Kessler syndrome increases. From the article:
"This bird was low enough that it will allegedly fall into the atmosphere and burn up in a few weeks."
51
posted on
03/28/2019 6:06:44 AM PDT
by
TangoLimaSierra
(To the Left, The truth is Right Wing Extremism.)
To: SeekAndFind
Compensating for sinking their own submarine.
52
posted on
03/28/2019 6:27:49 AM PDT
by
CrazyIvan
(A gentleman arms himself for the protection of others.)
To: Alas Babylon!
What’s to stop hackers or jammers, false signals.
The advanced internal navigation system (inertial guidance system) coupled with having to jam so many signals (and not knowing which signals the unit is receiving) will act as a check, for awhile.
53
posted on
03/28/2019 7:15:08 AM PDT
by
Cold Heart
(Oregon, tyranny, taxes and tolls)
To: alpo
That RX was garbage! My $20 Chinese shortwave radio has better selectivity.
54
posted on
03/28/2019 7:22:14 AM PDT
by
backwoods-engineer
(Enjoy the decline of the American empire.)
To: uncommonsense
“Performing such an act is blatant disregard for the entire population of earth IMHO. Yes - China needs
”
China?
To: null and void
“You, sir, have a failure of imagination. “
You, sir, have a vivid imagination. You imagine and put to words false claims about me.
To: Dundee
Target was a defunct polar orbiting 70kg weather package at 300km altitude.
To: alpo
To: TexasGator
China? I'm reading into what would cause India to undertake such a stupidly provocative action.
Pakistan is India's belligerent nuclear neighbor, but China is the last I remember who blew up an orbiting satellite and is also threatening to take over the primary shipping lane for that region. There's no doubt that China is the most prolific cyber-terrorist on the planet and they make no bones about their plan to economically and militarily dominate the region now, while they bully and pilfer their way to global control. There's no other nation that's stated this as their goal and have all of the means to do so. Maybe you see things differently, but I didn't think I made much of a leap that India was putting China on notice since Pakistan doesn't have much of a footprint in space, but China does.
59
posted on
03/29/2019 1:06:04 AM PDT
by
uncommonsense
(Liberals see what they believe; Conservatives believe what they see.)
To: SeekAndFind
India issued a stern warning to all satellite owners:
60
posted on
03/29/2019 1:11:59 AM PDT
by
Rastus
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