3 ms·

Assuming you don't mean to literally blow up the satellite, unless you have enough fuel to boost the satellite to earth escape velocity (expensive), it's not go

Assuming you don't mean to literally blow up the satellite, unless you have enough fuel to boost the satellite to earth escape velocity (expensive), it's not going to "spiral away" but get boosted to an elliptical orbit where the highest point ("apogee") is going to be at a higher altitude, but the lowest point ("perigee") is still going to be the same low altitude it started from. You could do a second burn at apogee to circularize the orbit and thus keep the satellite at that altitude all the time, but that's more fuel again. IIRC per a video by Scott Manley they do this for geostationary satellites and maybe at medium orbits, but for low-earth orbits (the majority of satellites) the extra fuel requirement goes against the cost advantage of LEO.

kolinko 6y ago
+1 - delta v is what matters, and a regular explosive would not throw a satellite off orbit significantly. But this makes me wonder - what is the minimum possible size for a nuke? I wonder if say 1-2kg nuke would be enough to throw all the debris out of orbit...
- wongarsu 6y ago
  No matter how you explode it, turning one piece of debris into many pieces at even higher velocities is only making things worse.
  - KMag 6y ago
    To add to this, given what we're learn about nuclear weapons in school/media, you'd think a small fission device would convert the entire mass of the satellite into a ball of mixed plasma and vapour. A lot of the non-metallic mass of the satellite would probably vaporize, but any surviving bits would have a bunch of added kinetic energy. Especially for things that reflect both infrared and soft x-rays, with pretty high melting points and pretty high thermal masses, nuclear explosions do less damage than you'd think. There was a nuclear test where they put a steel sphere about the size of a bowling ball pretty close to a device similar to Gadget / Fat Man. Spoiler alert: it survived barely scratched.[0] You could probably design a satellite with thin enough pieces of metal and add carbon black / carbon fiber to any polymers too transparent to IR/soft x-rays. You could probably also use a thermonuclear device, but the particle steams caught in the earth's magnetic field would damage satellites, and there's also the EMP to worry about. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by1xpy8ob8E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by1xpy8ob8E
  - cyphar 6y ago
    If the added velocities of the debris were unidirectional (along the debris's orbital velocity) then increasing their velocity enough would result in them breaking free of orbit. But I doubt that you would be able to do either in reality (not to mention detonating nuclear bombs in space seems like a bad idea regardless of any other factors).
- RobertoG 6y ago
  >>" I wonder if say 1-2kg nuke would be enough to throw all the debris out of orbit..." I don't get it. Can you blow something only in one direction?
  - hutzlibu 6y ago
    Aproximately you can, if you detonate the bomb behind the object. But the depris of the bomb would still go in all directions.
- T-A 6y ago
  Three problems with that idea: [1] The smallest (publicly known) nuclear device ever built weighed about 23 kg. [2] Detonating a nuke in orbit would cause a potentially devastating EMP. [3] The Outer Space Treaty explicitly prohibits putting WMDs in space. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_nuclear_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_nuclear_explosio... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
- Symmetry 6y ago
  Probably better overall to vaporize your satellite by means of a ground based laser rather than an in-orbit nuke.
madaxe_again 6y ago
It’s a lot easier to go down than to go up - all you need is a spool of copper wire. When it’s time to deorbit, you just reel it out, and let the Earth’s magnetic field do the work.

kolinko 6y ago

+1 - delta v is what matters, and a regular explosive would not throw a satellite off orbit significantly. But this makes me wonder - what is the minimum possible size for a nuke? I wonder if say 1-2kg nuke would be enough to throw all the debris out of orbit...

wongarsu 6y ago
No matter how you explode it, turning one piece of debris into many pieces at even higher velocities is only making things worse.
- KMag 6y ago
  To add to this, given what we're learn about nuclear weapons in school/media, you'd think a small fission device would convert the entire mass of the satellite into a ball of mixed plasma and vapour. A lot of the non-metallic mass of the satellite would probably vaporize, but any surviving bits would have a bunch of added kinetic energy. Especially for things that reflect both infrared and soft x-rays, with pretty high melting points and pretty high thermal masses, nuclear explosions do less damage than you'd think. There was a nuclear test where they put a steel sphere about the size of a bowling ball pretty close to a device similar to Gadget / Fat Man. Spoiler alert: it survived barely scratched.[0] You could probably design a satellite with thin enough pieces of metal and add carbon black / carbon fiber to any polymers too transparent to IR/soft x-rays. You could probably also use a thermonuclear device, but the particle steams caught in the earth's magnetic field would damage satellites, and there's also the EMP to worry about. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by1xpy8ob8E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by1xpy8ob8E
- cyphar 6y ago
  If the added velocities of the debris were unidirectional (along the debris's orbital velocity) then increasing their velocity enough would result in them breaking free of orbit. But I doubt that you would be able to do either in reality (not to mention detonating nuclear bombs in space seems like a bad idea regardless of any other factors).
RobertoG 6y ago
>>" I wonder if say 1-2kg nuke would be enough to throw all the debris out of orbit..." I don't get it. Can you blow something only in one direction?
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  Aproximately you can, if you detonate the bomb behind the object. But the depris of the bomb would still go in all directions.
T-A 6y ago
Three problems with that idea: [1] The smallest (publicly known) nuclear device ever built weighed about 23 kg. [2] Detonating a nuke in orbit would cause a potentially devastating EMP. [3] The Outer Space Treaty explicitly prohibits putting WMDs in space. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_nuclear_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_nuclear_explosio... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
Symmetry 6y ago
Probably better overall to vaporize your satellite by means of a ground based laser rather than an in-orbit nuke.

madaxe_again 6y ago

It’s a lot easier to go down than to go up - all you need is a spool of copper wire. When it’s time to deorbit, you just reel it out, and let the Earth’s magnetic field do the work.