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one thing is for sure, the next world-war they are just going to take out every satellite in the first 5 minutes the micro-debris will make orbits impossible f
by ck2 1y ago
one thing is for sure, the next world-war they are just going to take out every satellite in the first 5 minutes
the micro-debris will make orbits impossible for the next century
and that's assuming they don't use EMP from orbit to take out ground communications too like starfish prime
- RajT88 1y agoThat is a better case scenario than immediate nuclear annihilation.
- ck2 1y agoI think there is a dangerous misunderstanding that the population of earth could survive even a small number of nukes being used anywhere on the planet It would be a slow-moving but certain mass-extinction event A single modern nuke is 30-80 times more powerful than Hiroshima And then look at the socio-economic devastation of something like Covid
- nancyminusone 1y agoGo look at the Nevada Test Site on Google maps. About 1000 nukes were set off there. Las Vegas is only about 100 miles away and by all accounts seems to be thriving. In a nuclear attack, it's unlikely "we'll" be fine, but someone will be.
- ck2 1y agoWhat on earth are you downplaying There never ever has been an above-ground test of a modern enhanced hydrogen bomb in the USA The Bikini Atoll test in the 1950s using 75 year old technology killed people via radiation over 130 miles away Modern ICBMs carry several much more powerful warheads than that Even a few of them would make life on earth a permanent hell like peak covid pandemic but forever Even the "smallest" nuclear war would be one-and-we're-done event Eventually some tyrant on their deathbed will do it though
- RajT88 1y agoSo hold on. You are saying Tsar Bomba would have potentially been an extinction event at ground level? Holy shit.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- staunton 1y agoI guess you're talking about "nuclear winter", where the ash from the nuclear explosions gets into the upper atmosphere, blocks some of the sunlight and leads to a global famine. I'm not sure what's "a small number of nukes" in your book. Last I read about it, estimates suggest e.g. India and Pakistan dropping their entire arsenals on each other would indeed cause a nuclear winter.
- lupusreal 1y agoThat's nothing new really, late cold war wargames have satellites like the RORSATs playing a big role, and that's when anti-satellite weapon development really became a thing. Low LEO will mostly clear out in a few years. And for really important satellites that matter a lot no matter what the cost, they can still be used. You just have to accept a higher rate of attrition.
- verzali 1y agoProbably easier at some point to simply target the primary ground stations and operations rooms.