3 ms·
I've thought about this before - do you actually need to "shoot it down" (make it explode)? What if you just nudge it a little and either make it spin or change
by Aerroon 4mo ago
I've thought about this before - do you actually need to "shoot it down" (make it explode)? What if you just nudge it a little and either make it spin or change its orbit? If your missile can reach the satellite then these seem like things that should be possible, no?
- Cthulhu_ 4mo agoDepends, if you nudge it only a little, its own onboard stabilizers / thrusters should be able to correct it. It'd have to be more than its own systems can correct for.
- speed_spread 4mo agoNudge it long enough to deplete it's fuel reserves? Or just wrap the emitting antenna in tin foil...
- sroussey 4mo agoThere are tug boat style satellites now, one could grab it and force it to Earth.
- colechristensen 4mo agoA missile intercept for explosions or a kinetic destruction the relative velocity will be measured in kilometers per second. A little nudge doesn't do much, it's still a satellite in a substantially similar orbit. Any sort of nudge requires intercept, go up there and match its velocity so you can grab it and push. And still you have to push on it a whole lot to make a meaningful difference. Spin it up? You'd have to do enough to exhaust it's fuel it uses to orient itself. You're sort of saying if you can chuck an apple hitting a car on the highway, surely you can tow it away to get it off the road. They're significantly different problems.
- Aerroon 4mo agoAn apple at highway speeds can break the windshield and make the car undriveable. People throwing things from highway overpasses is a serious (and deadly) problem. >A missile intercept for explosions or a kinetic destruction the relative velocity will be measured in kilometers per second. The satellite will also be going kilometers per second. You have to almost match the orbital velocity to have a chance of hitting it anyway.
- colechristensen 4mo agoTo the contrary, for the 1 satellite missile strike we have public information on, not only did it not catch up to the orbital velocity for intercept, it hit it head on (going the other direction) adding to the relative velocity. A satellite with an ~8 km/s orbital velocity was struck head on by a missile adding to that by ~2 km/s for a total just under 10 km/s. It is indeed not that hard to intercept something in orbit. Because the orbits don't change and can be predicted to high precision months in the future.
- Aerroon 4mo agoI see. I'm actually more impressed by a head on intercept for the current anti-satellite missiles and that definitely makes the idea unworkable.