"Gogarty" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...


On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:15:16 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

Looks like they were successful in knocking down the busted satellite...
only cost $60M.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/0...own/index.html


I find it somewhat hard to believe that the U.S. government would
launch a satellite loaded with top secret hardware without including
an onboard way to blow it up by remote control in case of any
subsequent problems. Seems like that would be SOP.

It is a puzzlement, though ostensibly all communication with the satellite
had been lost. But you would think there would be a separate channel for
destruction.

You could have a command destruct mechanism that has a separate battery
supply and an omni antenna on the satellite that would overcome those
difficulties. Self destruct mechanisms could be regarded to violate current
space treaties regarding weapons in space. Once it is in orbit you have a
time bomb with respect to the radiation impinging on the electronic
circuitry, driving it to some undesriable failure mode, and the degradation
of the explosive. If it accidentaly blows up in its orbit track it will take
out dozens of other satellites. On top of that it is easier for NORAD to
track one big piece of space junk rather than thousands of pieces of small
space junk. The satellite is probably a KH-11 or descendant and in the past
these have re-entered and completely burned up. The hydrazine would burn up
with it too, so I'm dubious about the dangers of the fuel, the F-16 carries
hydrazine on board to power the APU.



Not exactly shooting fish in a barrel (which Mythbusters has demonstrated
is not so easy to do) but anyone who thinks this demonstration proves a
missile defense system can unerringly bring down enemy missiles is
delusional.


This demonstrates that the anti missile defense can shoot down low earth
orbit satellites. It was also accomplished ten years ago by a missile
launched from a F-16 and the Chinese just did it too. Satellites are easy
targets, you know where they are, where they are going and have a single
point spectral signature. An enemy missile does not enter orbit, its
spectral signature is a long streak (or several streaks as in the case of
Iraqi Scuds), the path is not stable and flat, the atmospheric density
varies greatly over the flight and the time window for launch is very small.
The airborne laser may be the best bet for now until the bad guys start
building chrome plated missiles. Raytheon (Patriot) did not score a single
hit on the Scuds, they had all broken up in flight and the Raytheon had some
timing issues with the Patriot that rendered it almost useless.

Ron