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Invite them in. Launch their satellites for them, at 400km. Give them cash or territory. Give away the farm. How doesn't matter. What matters is that we st
by mapt 2y ago
Invite them in. Launch their satellites for them, at 400km. Give them cash or territory. Give away the farm. How doesn't matter. What matters is that we start coexisting at 300-500km, and we mutually taboo launching large amounts to altitudes much higher than that.
There is no stable Mutually Assured Destruction Nash equilibrium here, if either of us does this thing it causes dramatic harm to both.
Not regarding that as a worthwhile goal is "mineshaft gap" thinking - a zero-sum mentality entirely ignoring our collective advantage in order to pursue competitive advantage.
It is perfectly feasible to run a Chinese constellation alongside Starlink sharing the same space, orbitally. Very low orbits are self cleaning.
- nradov 2y agoThere is no world in which giving cash or territory to the Chinese Communist Party would be acceptable to US taxpayers, regardless of the consequences.
- mapt 2y agoWe've been doing it since Deng for the sake of making a few CEOs and shareholders richer. China operates or is monopsony sponsor of numerous pieces of infrastructure around the world in the name of trade.
- tehjoker 2y agoi think you mean war-hawk capitalists, this taxpayer thinks cooperation is fine
- mionhe 2y agoNot in that context. China as a whole is seen differently than the Chinese Communist Party.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoOr just destroy their rockets and launch complexes. It’s better than Kessler syndrome.
- immibis 2y agoThey, in turn, will destroy ours, and then you have basically caused the same outcome as Kessler syndrome: nobody can launch things to space.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago[flagged]
- neilv 2y agoPlease don't commit acts of war. War is bad.
- throwaway290 2y ago"Please don't hurt the bully in the playground, fighting is bad" The bully isn't going to learn with this implicit encouragement.
- neilv 2y agoNeither kid is an angel, but they both are smart enough not to risk an all-out fight with each other.
- mapt 2y agoIt is trivial to retaliate in orbital disputes, and ASAT warfare produces long-lived hazard which cannot be cleaned up. Imagine two rival nuclear plants in nearby cities buying artillery and shelling each other, including with aerially deployed landmines. Either you get along or you do not get to be a spacefaring civilization.
- perihelions 2y agoNot agreeing with any of this. - "Launch their satellites for them, at 400km." No reasonable person would help their adversary build powerful weapons that could immediately be used against them. The point of satellite constellations—Chinese or American, either—is to create undeniable, high-bandwidth communications for armies; to create real-time (as opposed to sporadic) satellite imagery for armies; to create, in short, an overwhelming situational awareness advantage in a conventional war. - "Give them cash or territory." We are not giving away countries.