4 ms·

"If you sanction us or cut access to our launch site in Nevada, we will redirect a 50m asteroid to impact Washington, DC." It would be a classic Mexican stando

"If you sanction us or cut access to our launch site in Nevada, we will redirect a 50m asteroid to impact Washington, DC." It would be a classic Mexican standoff, but the group with access to orbital and inter-planetary platforms would win. You could try to starve them out, but you couldn't keep them from obliterating you while it was happening.

vidarh 11y ago
> "If you sanction us or cut access to our launch site in Nevada, we will redirect a 50m asteroid to impact Washington, DC." At which point you have become the worlds most wanted terrorist, and will have to watch your back for the rest of your life while large portions of the worlds security apparatus tries to find ways of taking you out (not just the US - everyone else will worry they are next).
- jacquesm 11y ago
  > At which point you have become the worlds most wanted terrorist Only you're not on this world... Interplanetary games of brinkmanship have new rules.
  - vidarh 11y ago
    But most of your resources likely still are, or the threat would be pointless.
    - LyndsySimon 11y ago
      The purpose of the threat is to prevent the grounders from denying you access to your resources planetside. Seems to me that the first entity to get a real foothold in space will be the de facto ruler of Earth.
- Kliment 11y ago
  This is essentially the plot of Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
maxerickson 11y ago
To the extent that the US government believes something like that will happen, I expect it will develop sufficient capability to eradicate the thruster (and the people controlling it). If it has to have a militarized orbital platform, it will. I guess in some ways that super-capable ballistic missiles would be more politically palatable than a militarized platform. Such a thing could just be launched at any object that showed a suspicious early trajectory. Anyway, I meant economic dependence; if you have investors that are on Earth, they will expect you to do what it takes to get them their returns. That means complying with governments. So in that scenario, dependence is simply needing that investment.
- Aperson4321 11y ago
  Shoot out the trusters? there is no friction to stop the kinetic momentum in space. Anyway you can rig the asteroid with explosives in the center of it, and just blow it to make a still dangerous giant meteor rain. The rather hard sci-fi book series by Jack Campbell/(non alias name is: John G. Hemry) by the name lost fleet is full of scenarious where planet dwellers are rather fucked against space forces. Spoiler: Giant block of metal is all you need to do planetary bombardments from space, just send it off and Newton will do the rest. Good luck stopping the many many tons of a single metal object "dropped" from space.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    I'm assuming that the first notice of the asteroid changing trajectory will be well before the trajectory is Washington DC. So presumably there is something changing the trajectory. Vaporize that thing. Now the trajectory is not Washington DC and the threat is empty.
    - jessaustin 11y ago
      How about this scenario? There is an asteroid in the solar system we've already directed on such a trajectory. Using the thrust capability that we installed to accomplish that, we're happy to redirect the asteroid, if our demands are met.

vidarh 11y ago

> "If you sanction us or cut access to our launch site in Nevada, we will redirect a 50m asteroid to impact Washington, DC." At which point you have become the worlds most wanted terrorist, and will have to watch your back for the rest of your life while large portions of the worlds security apparatus tries to find ways of taking you out (not just the US - everyone else will worry they are next).

jacquesm 11y ago
> At which point you have become the worlds most wanted terrorist Only you're not on this world... Interplanetary games of brinkmanship have new rules.
- vidarh 11y ago
  But most of your resources likely still are, or the threat would be pointless.
  - LyndsySimon 11y ago
    The purpose of the threat is to prevent the grounders from denying you access to your resources planetside. Seems to me that the first entity to get a real foothold in space will be the de facto ruler of Earth.
Kliment 11y ago
This is essentially the plot of Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

maxerickson 11y ago

To the extent that the US government believes something like that will happen, I expect it will develop sufficient capability to eradicate the thruster (and the people controlling it). If it has to have a militarized orbital platform, it will. I guess in some ways that super-capable ballistic missiles would be more politically palatable than a militarized platform. Such a thing could just be launched at any object that showed a suspicious early trajectory. Anyway, I meant economic dependence; if you have investors that are on Earth, they will expect you to do what it takes to get them their returns. That means complying with governments. So in that scenario, dependence is simply needing that investment.

Aperson4321 11y ago
Shoot out the trusters? there is no friction to stop the kinetic momentum in space. Anyway you can rig the asteroid with explosives in the center of it, and just blow it to make a still dangerous giant meteor rain. The rather hard sci-fi book series by Jack Campbell/(non alias name is: John G. Hemry) by the name lost fleet is full of scenarious where planet dwellers are rather fucked against space forces. Spoiler: Giant block of metal is all you need to do planetary bombardments from space, just send it off and Newton will do the rest. Good luck stopping the many many tons of a single metal object "dropped" from space.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  I'm assuming that the first notice of the asteroid changing trajectory will be well before the trajectory is Washington DC. So presumably there is something changing the trajectory. Vaporize that thing. Now the trajectory is not Washington DC and the threat is empty.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    How about this scenario? There is an asteroid in the solar system we've already directed on such a trajectory. Using the thrust capability that we installed to accomplish that, we're happy to redirect the asteroid, if our demands are met.