Will SpaceX Make “Rods From God” and Other Future-Weapons a Reality?

AmmoLand ^ | December 17, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The weapons system “Rods from God” is being made possible by Elon Musk and breakthrough engineering technologies created as part of SpaceX.  In the 1950s, the idea of a space weapon system known as Thor was thought up. It consisted of Tungsten rods, about a foot in diameter and 20 feet long. It contains a guidance system and a way to launch the projectile from orbit to a precise location on Earth. Over time, the name was changed to Rods from God. A rod from god would kinetically deliver energy to a target equivalent to roughly 11 tons of TNT. It would be extremely difficult to defend against. It could attack surface targets with extreme precision, by some estimates, about 15 minutes from launch.

Rods from God has the potential to offer a much cheaper and more usable alternative to nuclear weapons. It could be the 21st-century equivalent of the 19th-century warship used for gunboat diplomacy.

The concept has been investigated by the Department of Defense several times over the last 60 years. The nextbigfuture.com, by Brian Wang, reconsidered the concept in 2018 with a look at possible cost reductions by SpaceX.  Wang noted the major impediment to implementing such a weapon is the cost of taking it to orbit. Another major problem is ensuring a precise guidance system.

SpaceX, with its reusable Super Heavy Booster and Starship, along with Starlink, has the potential to solve both problems. The initial rod from god (Thor) weapon was projected at a mass of 8,000 kilograms, about 17,000 lbs. SpaceX and Starship are projected to reduce cost to orbit to $12 to $17 per pound.

With SpaceX, the cost of orbiting rods from god are reduced from hundreds of millions of dollars per rod in the

[marktwain]

Low Earth orbit is the high ground. Control of low Earth orbit means control of the Earth.

[ClearCase_guy]

[Texas Fossil]

Guidance with precision. Low Earth Orbit satellites provide the method of accuracy.

[odawg]

“Infiltrating individual soldiers across borders becomes a useful tactic. Militias become more useful as a dispersed defense.”

Well, there are tens of thousands of individual Chinese soldiers in the United States now, thanks to the Biden administration.

Certainly, according to the Biden adminstration, they are all here, along with the other tens of millions from across the world, seeking new ways to keep the Ten Commandments.

[Brian Griffin]

This is essentially just a more kinetic version of Putin’s recently used weapon.

[marktwain]

The biggest difference is it is launched from orbit. There is very little time to defend against it or signature to identify it.

[PIF]

No.

[Redcitizen]

Here is a visualization of the concept from the movie GI Joe Retaliation :

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jOKf5r_JMAo

[Wonder Warthog]

Conceptualized by science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle.

[Georgia Girl 2]

We already have rods of God. 🙄

[buwaya]

Some men are so blessed, yes. But it still behooves us to stay humble.

[Georgia Girl 2]

😆

[Saintgermain]

What a waste of tungsten a fairly rare metal were it takes about a ton of rocks to extract 1.5 grams of Tungsten.

[marktwain]

The rods don’t necessarily have to be of tungsten.

[Redcitizen]

Additional visuals: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/jO16i3KdBXY