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- "We still have 30+ nuclear reactors hanging over our heads in space that will come down one day." To be fair that's multiple centuries away, so there won't b

- "We still have 30+ nuclear reactors hanging over our heads in space that will come down one day." To be fair that's multiple centuries away, so there won't be very much radiation left. And since they were relatively low-power reactors, there wasn't that much to begin with.

rolph 2y ago
one good shove with a sattelite designed to sweep orbits free, will put one down. this could happen tomorrow, evil willing.
- Aurornis 2y ago
  You think if someone was evil and willing, they’d design and launch a satellite designed to seek out another satellite and take it out of orbit in a way that causes it to drop randomly into the atmosphere? All this instead of simply launching a satellite that does what they want? Or skipping the satellite and doing it with terrestrial solutions? Some people’s threat models are very upside down.
  - rolph 2y ago
    its already in place, it only requires abuse for it to happen.
    - saagarjha 2y ago
      Yes, but if you are willing to be malicious, there are far easier ways to get the same outcome.
- chgs 2y ago
  A good shove being about 250m/s of delta v? Perhaps more to be certain of where you’re landing. Not exactly trivial or stealthy. Why not just load up some nuclear waste on your “shoving device” and launch that exactly where you want?
  - rolph 2y ago
    kudos for the thinking cap-- its all up there already, all you need is access, haxd or authd, and you have a dirty bomb from orbit, and the requirement to orient to the threat. and it could be done more than once if the killer satellite survives
    - ted_dunning 2y ago
      Not really. If the killer satellite is in an orbit for one maneuver it will be far from a suitable orbit for a different target. Delta-v is hard.
    - chgs 2y ago
      That’s the problem. It’s up there. Getting it down requires you to get something of significant mass up there to provide that delta v to deorbit it, and even then you’re not entirely sure exactly where it will land. You could probably target a large country, but not a city. Instead use all that feta v you need to get your “shoving device” and just send it direct. To deorbit one of those satellites you need an icbm capability already
wkat4242 2y ago
It is but these reactors use U235 which has a half-life of 700 million years. So yeah they will still be pretty much radioactive when they come down. Also, the decay products tend to be radioactive too and have their own half lives on top of that.

rolph 2y ago

one good shove with a sattelite designed to sweep orbits free, will put one down. this could happen tomorrow, evil willing.

Aurornis 2y ago
You think if someone was evil and willing, they’d design and launch a satellite designed to seek out another satellite and take it out of orbit in a way that causes it to drop randomly into the atmosphere? All this instead of simply launching a satellite that does what they want? Or skipping the satellite and doing it with terrestrial solutions? Some people’s threat models are very upside down.
- rolph 2y ago
  its already in place, it only requires abuse for it to happen.
  - saagarjha 2y ago
    Yes, but if you are willing to be malicious, there are far easier ways to get the same outcome.
chgs 2y ago
A good shove being about 250m/s of delta v? Perhaps more to be certain of where you’re landing. Not exactly trivial or stealthy. Why not just load up some nuclear waste on your “shoving device” and launch that exactly where you want?
- rolph 2y ago
  kudos for the thinking cap-- its all up there already, all you need is access, haxd or authd, and you have a dirty bomb from orbit, and the requirement to orient to the threat. and it could be done more than once if the killer satellite survives
  - ted_dunning 2y ago
    Not really. If the killer satellite is in an orbit for one maneuver it will be far from a suitable orbit for a different target. Delta-v is hard.
  - chgs 2y ago
    That’s the problem. It’s up there. Getting it down requires you to get something of significant mass up there to provide that delta v to deorbit it, and even then you’re not entirely sure exactly where it will land. You could probably target a large country, but not a city. Instead use all that feta v you need to get your “shoving device” and just send it direct. To deorbit one of those satellites you need an icbm capability already

wkat4242 2y ago

It is but these reactors use U235 which has a half-life of 700 million years. So yeah they will still be pretty much radioactive when they come down. Also, the decay products tend to be radioactive too and have their own half lives on top of that.