3 ms·

> for example by using reflected DVB-T transmissions Now imagine if you had a constellation of thousands of orbital satellites with precisely known positions..

• H8crilA 4y ago
  There are many, many ISTAR satellites that work in visual, infrared or SAR for various intelligence agencies and militaries. But that's not necessarily good enough to home in a SAM, they don't have enough TX power (we're talking about hundreds of kilowatts or even a megawatt of TX power in pulse), and they are too high/far (radar reflection energy decreases with the fourth power of distance). The satellites are still terribly useful though, just look at what's happening in Ukraine. The next major war will probably see a destruction of most or all of those satellites, and consequently a multi-century pollution of the low earth orbit with extremely fast deadly debris. Multiple countries already have anti-sat weapons, and they're even getting deployed to "3-rd party" countries. For example American ballistic missile defence installations in Europe (Aegis-ashore).
  • nonrandomstring 4y ago
    > But that's not necessarily good enough to home in a SAM, they don't have enough TX power Fair enough. I guess if you need to hit back you got to give yourself (or your trackers) away. Scary what your saying about anti-sat though. That really would put the kibosh on space exploration.
  • the_third_wave 4y ago
    It only has to get the SAM within such a range that the target can no longer avoid it. Once within this range the SAM can home in using active radar which will light up the threat display in the target but leave them no space/time to react.