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Chinese or Russian satellite “rescuer”.
by wil421 7y ago
Chinese or Russian satellite “rescuer”.
- AstroJetson 7y agoExactly!
- biesnecker 7y ago"Liberator"
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoHold still while I freedom you!
- dang 7y agoCould you please review the site guidelines and not post unsubstantive comments to HN? We ban accounts that repeatedly do that because we're trying for a bit better than internet default here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoSorry - I did not mean to contribute to BS drive-by comments. I will refrain from doing so in the future. Apologies.
- nine_k 7y agoI won't be surprised if a military satellite of any state capable of launching military satellites will self-destruct if taken away forcibly from the designated orbit. A simple acceleration test would suffice. I also won't be surprised if when self-destructing, such satellite will try to deliberately damage everything in its close vicinity.
- mc32 7y agoI don’t think they make boobytrapped satellites that explode, but they may remotely activate a self-destruct process which renders abduction pointless. If they exploded it wouldn’t it create more problems than it solves in terms of more flying debris they have to track as well as friendlies in the same orbital path? (Like when Iridium 33 crashed into a defunct soviet satellite.)
- bdamm 7y agoI also don’t think the attack would involve changing orbits. The attack would be inserting electronic backdoor etc.
- jonathankoren 7y agoNah. Bolt cutters on an arm, or even just spray paint. You don’t need to be close to do an electronic attack. If you’re close, you might as well hit it with a hammer or snip the antenna and solar arrays off.
- nine_k 7y agoThis kind of sudden malfunction, along with acceleration not due to firing of any engines, would be a signal for the self-destruction device, likely chemically powered (explosive) and mechanically actuated. It would be sure to shatter the interesting electronic parts, burning or detonating any remaining fuel for bonus points.
- salex89 7y agoWell, the Russians are also doing some shady stuff... They call it the Sputnik Inspektor. https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/kosmos-2519.htm https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/kosmos-2519.htm