4 ms·

Star Tek–Exploiting the Final Frontier: Counterspace Operations in 2025 (1996) [pdf]

57 points by halturing 6y ago

throwanem 6y ago
Worth mentioning that this dates from not only a time when the US space program remained a going concern, but also the same period of US military thinking that produced, among other hilarities, the failed OICW "smart rifle" program whose most famous output has proven to be the HK XM8 fish gun. It's accordingly worth being a little generous in your interpretation, the work having been written a highly eventful quarter century ago.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  OICW was just way too early and optimistic for its time, large military arms manufacturers are now producing and integrating “smart scopes”, DARPA has shown real world tests of trajectory adjusting munition. And the technology for the air burst munitions form OICW is fielded today. For the primary gun itself there was basically no real way to put in a range finder and a good ballistics computer using late 80’s to early 90’s tech. Then the mid 2000’s came out and smart scopes started to become a thing which now even the likes of HK and SIG offer. OICW also kinda made the same mistake as the G36 and that was integrating the scope and targeting system with the rifle rather than offering a truly modular platform that can be upgraded. The G36 had a good optic for the mid to late 90’s but by the mid 2000’s it became very much obsolete, replacing it in the field in case of damage was also found to be near impossible so HK quickly switched to making pic rail G36’s especially for export as their clients weren’t going to pay a huge premium on a 90’s optic that is inferior to a bargain bin red dot and a magnifier setup or an LPVO. Reading the pdf it actually came quite close to reality, many of its predictions came true in one shape or another. Even direct energy weapons are out of the lab these days and are fielded in limited capacities, in the next 5-10 years even airborne direct energy pods like the one being developed by Lockheed Martin will be fielded.
  - ta1234567890 6y ago
    Very interesting. Pardon my ignorance, but what is a direct energy weapon?
    - MrEldritch 6y ago
      "Directed energy weapon" is essentially the more technical way of saying "death ray". Lasers, microwaves, particle beams, that sort of thing.
    - ThrowawayR2 6y ago
      I think they're referring to directed energy weapons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon
    - dogma1138 6y ago
      Lasers and other energy weapons: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2020/tactical-airborne-laser-pods-are-coming.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2020/tact...
  - nradov 6y ago
    The XM25 air burst grenade launcher from OICW was fielded temporarily for evaluation but then the whole program was cancelled. Apparently it was too heavy and seldom useful.
    - dogma1138 6y ago
      I wasn’t talking about the XM25, the air burst programmable round from the OICW and ACSW was transferred to 40mm grenades now in use in the MK47 and the M320.
deft 6y ago
Anyone interested in this should check out the new Space Force document SpacePower https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publication_10%20Aug%202020.pdf https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publ...
- iciac 6y ago
  This is a genuinely fascinating read. Thank you for sharing.
peter_d_sherman 6y ago
>"Gravity Gradiometer System Description. Gravity gradiometers are instruments and systems that detect mass density contrasts. Recent gravity gradiometer research has focused on sea-based submarine detection applications. This concept goes several leaps forward and proposes its use in space as a passive detection system. Concept of Operations. With multiple gravity gradiometers located on multiple satellites in orbit, approaching “foreign bodies” can be passively detected. Data and measurements gathered could be combined with data from other detection devices in Kalman filtering or data fusion algorithms to enhance detection and even identification probabilities." This is interesting, the concept of a Gravity Gradiometer. I did not know that these existed, before reading this article. The following seems to be a good (albeit, somewhat commercial) page about this technology: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/gravity-gradiometry.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/gravity-gradio... These are apparently supposed to be used in space, from a satellite, and are supposed to measure data about the earth. But, I'm wondering (from a purely theoretical basis) if a "Poor Man's Gravity Detector" could be created... Postulated theory of operation: Use two waves (they could be beams), two frequencies from the electromagnetic spectrum, and measure the time they take to cross (bounce back) from a specific distance. The idea would be that a lower frequency beam -- would be more affected by gravity than a higher one (although, perhaps this would be reversed, I don't know, experimentation is needed), and that any microscopic difference in the amount of time for the beams to be reflected might indicate the presence of higher or lower gravity. Of course, the prerequisite to creating something like this would be to have a way to test it. That is, first create a device that creates a miniscule amount of gravity (which I wouldn't know how to do -- although one guess would be that large amounts of a heavy metal would generate a microscopicly increased gravity field around it (like a milimeter away from its surface); for example, a large ball or other object made out of iron...) Anyway, an interesting article!
- Doxin 6y ago
  You might be interested in reading up about torsion balances, it's a scientific apparatus designed pretty much specifically to measure gravity. And indeed usually you test it (or the force of gravity itself) by using a couple globes of a large mass nearby. The device is sensitive enough to where you can't really be in the room while testing it since your gravitational field is larger than the stuff you're measuring. Of course a torsion balance really only measures the direction of the gravitational field on a single plane, not its force or total direction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_spring#Torsion_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_spring#Torsion_balance

57 points by halturing 6y ago

Worth mentioning that this dates from not only a time when the US space program remained a going concern, but also the same period of US military thinking that produced, among other hilarities, the failed OICW "smart rifle" program whose most famous output has proven to be the HK XM8 fish gun. It's accordingly worth being a little generous in your interpretation, the work having been written a highly eventful quarter century ago.

dogma1138 6y ago
OICW was just way too early and optimistic for its time, large military arms manufacturers are now producing and integrating “smart scopes”, DARPA has shown real world tests of trajectory adjusting munition. And the technology for the air burst munitions form OICW is fielded today. For the primary gun itself there was basically no real way to put in a range finder and a good ballistics computer using late 80’s to early 90’s tech. Then the mid 2000’s came out and smart scopes started to become a thing which now even the likes of HK and SIG offer. OICW also kinda made the same mistake as the G36 and that was integrating the scope and targeting system with the rifle rather than offering a truly modular platform that can be upgraded. The G36 had a good optic for the mid to late 90’s but by the mid 2000’s it became very much obsolete, replacing it in the field in case of damage was also found to be near impossible so HK quickly switched to making pic rail G36’s especially for export as their clients weren’t going to pay a huge premium on a 90’s optic that is inferior to a bargain bin red dot and a magnifier setup or an LPVO. Reading the pdf it actually came quite close to reality, many of its predictions came true in one shape or another. Even direct energy weapons are out of the lab these days and are fielded in limited capacities, in the next 5-10 years even airborne direct energy pods like the one being developed by Lockheed Martin will be fielded.
- ta1234567890 6y ago
  Very interesting. Pardon my ignorance, but what is a direct energy weapon?
  - MrEldritch 6y ago
    "Directed energy weapon" is essentially the more technical way of saying "death ray". Lasers, microwaves, particle beams, that sort of thing.
  - ThrowawayR2 6y ago
    I think they're referring to directed energy weapons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    Lasers and other energy weapons: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2020/tactical-airborne-laser-pods-are-coming.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2020/tact...
- nradov 6y ago
  The XM25 air burst grenade launcher from OICW was fielded temporarily for evaluation but then the whole program was cancelled. Apparently it was too heavy and seldom useful.
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    I wasn’t talking about the XM25, the air burst programmable round from the OICW and ACSW was transferred to 40mm grenades now in use in the MK47 and the M320.

deft 6y ago

Anyone interested in this should check out the new Space Force document SpacePower https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publication_10%20Aug%202020.pdf https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publ...

iciac 6y ago
This is a genuinely fascinating read. Thank you for sharing.

peter_d_sherman 6y ago

>"Gravity Gradiometer System Description. Gravity gradiometers are instruments and systems that detect mass density contrasts. Recent gravity gradiometer research has focused on sea-based submarine detection applications. This concept goes several leaps forward and proposes its use in space as a passive detection system. Concept of Operations. With multiple gravity gradiometers located on multiple satellites in orbit, approaching “foreign bodies” can be passively detected. Data and measurements gathered could be combined with data from other detection devices in Kalman filtering or data fusion algorithms to enhance detection and even identification probabilities." This is interesting, the concept of a Gravity Gradiometer. I did not know that these existed, before reading this article. The following seems to be a good (albeit, somewhat commercial) page about this technology: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/gravity-gradiometry.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/gravity-gradio... These are apparently supposed to be used in space, from a satellite, and are supposed to measure data about the earth. But, I'm wondering (from a purely theoretical basis) if a "Poor Man's Gravity Detector" could be created... Postulated theory of operation: Use two waves (they could be beams), two frequencies from the electromagnetic spectrum, and measure the time they take to cross (bounce back) from a specific distance. The idea would be that a lower frequency beam -- would be more affected by gravity than a higher one (although, perhaps this would be reversed, I don't know, experimentation is needed), and that any microscopic difference in the amount of time for the beams to be reflected might indicate the presence of higher or lower gravity. Of course, the prerequisite to creating something like this would be to have a way to test it. That is, first create a device that creates a miniscule amount of gravity (which I wouldn't know how to do -- although one guess would be that large amounts of a heavy metal would generate a microscopicly increased gravity field around it (like a milimeter away from its surface); for example, a large ball or other object made out of iron...) Anyway, an interesting article!

Doxin 6y ago
You might be interested in reading up about torsion balances, it's a scientific apparatus designed pretty much specifically to measure gravity. And indeed usually you test it (or the force of gravity itself) by using a couple globes of a large mass nearby. The device is sensitive enough to where you can't really be in the room while testing it since your gravitational field is larger than the stuff you're measuring. Of course a torsion balance really only measures the direction of the gravitational field on a single plane, not its force or total direction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_spring#Torsion_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_spring#Torsion_balance