boatgeek
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So the purported Russian nuclear anti-satellite weapon has been all over the news in the last few days. On another forum, I got into a discussion about them. My theory was that they were a paper tiger, since destroying our satellites (eg GPS, spy sats) would also take out theirs, and we have a much better capability to rebuild our constellations quickly. The other person’s theory was that the destructive raid of the weapon could be small enough to target individual satellites. About midway through the discussion, I realized that I really didn’t know what I was talking about. So here I am in a form where people do know what they’re talking about.
So in to some questions.
1. Could one reasonably use space nukes for targeted destruction of satellites? In other words, would the shock and EMP be fairly localized, or would it wipe out whole swathes of the sky?
2. Would nukes in space be better or worse space junk generators than standard anti-satellite missiles?
3. If you were going to disable satellites without generating a lot of space junk, how would you do it?
4. How many of the 31 GPS satellites in orbit would you have to disable to create meaningful numbers of dead spots where you couldn’t get a fix at all?
My first thought for 3 is to attack solar arrays with lasers. Even burning out a third of the cells would seriously impact a satellite’s capability.
For 4, I was guessing 8-12.
So in to some questions.
1. Could one reasonably use space nukes for targeted destruction of satellites? In other words, would the shock and EMP be fairly localized, or would it wipe out whole swathes of the sky?
2. Would nukes in space be better or worse space junk generators than standard anti-satellite missiles?
3. If you were going to disable satellites without generating a lot of space junk, how would you do it?
4. How many of the 31 GPS satellites in orbit would you have to disable to create meaningful numbers of dead spots where you couldn’t get a fix at all?
My first thought for 3 is to attack solar arrays with lasers. Even burning out a third of the cells would seriously impact a satellite’s capability.
For 4, I was guessing 8-12.