Spy Satellite Shootdown
- Thread starter Terry_Lasater
- Start date
David Jimerson" said:
This is different. The support technologies for high-energy weapons have advanced because of fundamental progress in physics and chemistry and mathematics that has taken decades since the first lasers were built.
The moon program made use of fundamental advances already in the lab or prototype pipeline, by the 1960s.
Not to take away from the Apollo program in the least, but it's not the same conditions.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
rogar-Shock(DBG):
My point is, if you want something, you develop the specific technologies which allow it. Military needs are usually the biggest catalyst to technological advancement.
Maybe I'm wrong. I just think, as Anhar pointed out, that the energy requirements are probably too huge to make weaponized lasers practical . . . especially in the personal weapons arena . . . and especially when compared to other alternatives.
mikkowilson
Steadi-Guru
A laser wouldn't really help in this situation .. unless it was *extremely* powerful - enough to make the satellite explode instantly due to thermal expansion.. or if it could breach the fuel tank & thaw & ignite the fuel - again, instantly.
Most probably what a high powered laser would do is simply cut the satellite in half as it crossed the beam . the result being simply two "satellites" moving on the same vector at the same speed - side by side. In fact, without some outside force to separate the halves, they would most likely appear to continues as one until something did bump them apart.
Making it hit something / smacking it with a big hammer (in either case, a physical missile) is bar far the most effective way to break it up.
- Mikko
Most probably what a high powered laser would do is simply cut the satellite in half as it crossed the beam . the result being simply two "satellites" moving on the same vector at the same speed - side by side. In fact, without some outside force to separate the halves, they would most likely appear to continues as one until something did bump them apart.
Making it hit something / smacking it with a big hammer (in either case, a physical missile) is bar far the most effective way to break it up.
- Mikko
Matt Gottshalk
Resident Preditor
I think that we are FAR closer to kinetic and directed energy weapons (as well as rail guns), than we are to having the required HUGE amount of power necessary for a unpatronized laser for something that high.
Hell, right now, the military has an airborne laser that basically takes up an entire commercial airliner! Even then, it can only target a missile at the first "boost" stage of launch.
Hell, right now, the military has an airborne laser that basically takes up an entire commercial airliner! Even then, it can only target a missile at the first "boost" stage of launch.
Anhar_Miah
Veteran
That plane is one of those "experiments" I was referring too, and lets not forget that the power requirements was not the only issue, the clouds also reduced the lasers range and power/accuracy because of the suspended particles that refracted the laser light, there was also other atmospheric problems too.
joemiked
Well-known member
oh yeah i dont dought hi technoligie
you can buy a 90$ hand held green laser(which i have) and there are specific instructions to tweak it and get to burning things with a watch batterie!?
sick amigine soem million doller battery laser used to create rain clouds over the ocean or lakes turned right side up pow might just punch a hole in that satalite or u.f.o. stuck in are gravity i mean a large rock
mike d
you can buy a 90$ hand held green laser(which i have) and there are specific instructions to tweak it and get to burning things with a watch batterie!?
sick amigine soem million doller battery laser used to create rain clouds over the ocean or lakes turned right side up pow might just punch a hole in that satalite or u.f.o. stuck in are gravity i mean a large rock
mike d
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thematthewbone
Well-known member
...huh?
Matt Grunau
Adobe Demigod
Cool video. Interesting we can hit something that far out there.
Potential Alien threat, consider yourself on notice.
Potential Alien threat, consider yourself on notice.
Mark Harris
Pain in the ass
The alien threat they were looking to impress is only on the other side of the planet.
Right, the moon wasn't invented to give man a place to get to with their computers.....:2vrolijk_08:
thematthewbone
Well-known member
lol.
i guess all those billions of dollars on the missile defense system was a good investment!
don't tell michael bay bruce willis and their Armageddon team we don't need them anymore.
i guess all those billions of dollars on the missile defense system was a good investment!
don't tell michael bay bruce willis and their Armageddon team we don't need them anymore.
Low Earth Orbit isn't that far out; less than 200 miles.
It's the relative velocities that make it such a challenge.
Satellites in geosynchronous orbit are still pretty darned safe.
Matt Grunau
Adobe Demigod
Yeah, but 200 miles up still means a hell of a lot less gravity, which mean almost no air right? The air at that point has got to be really thin, if it's there at all, which means no real manuverability once you get past a certain altitude. That make you really have to get your numbers right from the get go.
It's not like a cruise missle or a conventional missle. That's what I thought was cool.
A spaceborne vehicle still maneuvers; it's simply done using reaction thrusters instead of control surfaces. With potentially greater precision, too.
The first two stages are enhancements of the Standard SM3, the basis of which has been around for many years...so it's basically a conventional system (to the degree that transonic anti-aircraft missiles are "conventional," to begin with) with improved capabilities.
In the 1990s I produced animations for Dave Scott (of Gemini 8, Apollo 9, and Apollo 15 fame), who was developing a back-to-the-moon-but-really-let's-go-to-Mars program, using technology adapted from the AHIT maneuver-intercept program. It was interesting, listening to people talking about how the hardware could never be made to work, while watching test footage of the hardware, well, working.
The first two stages are enhancements of the Standard SM3, the basis of which has been around for many years...so it's basically a conventional system (to the degree that transonic anti-aircraft missiles are "conventional," to begin with) with improved capabilities.
In the 1990s I produced animations for Dave Scott (of Gemini 8, Apollo 9, and Apollo 15 fame), who was developing a back-to-the-moon-but-really-let's-go-to-Mars program, using technology adapted from the AHIT maneuver-intercept program. It was interesting, listening to people talking about how the hardware could never be made to work, while watching test footage of the hardware, well, working.
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Dick Campbell
Veteran
USA 193 was only about 70 miles up. Spy satellites are orbited much lower (than weather or land mapping birds), for better imaging, which is why they don't stay up very long.
Still a remarkable feat of tracking and guidance.
Still a remarkable feat of tracking and guidance.