brent@poseidon.UUCP (Brent P. Callaghan) (08/26/85)
We are informed that the latest example of U.S.
military technology is to be tested within the
next two weeks. This two stage, 18 ft long,
air-launched missile delivers its payload directly
to the enemy satellite at over 500 miles/minute.
The payload, only 13" long and 12" diameter
homes in on the infra-red radiation emitted
from the target using tiny steering rockets.
It contains no explosive, using sheer kinetic
energy alone to destroy the victim.
I'm sure it would punch a nice hole in
a compact satellite and surely disable it.
By compact satellite, I mean one of those rotating
barrel things, covered in solar cells.
Its effectiveness against a "distributed" satellite
would be another matter. A 12" diameter hole in
a large solar array would reduce the available
power somewhat, but nothing more.
Enemy satellites could even have an infra-red
emitter of some sort hanging out on a boom to
misguide such expensive cannonballs.
--
Made in New Zealand --> Brent Callaghan
AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ
{ihnp4|mtuxo|pegasus}!poseidon!brent
(201) 576-3475jamesp@dadla.UUCP (Jim Perkins) (08/27/85)
In article <1273@poseidon.UUCP> brent@poseidon.UUCP (Brent P. Callaghan) writes: >Its effectiveness against a "distributed" satellite >would be another matter. A 12" diameter hole in >a large solar array would reduce the available >power somewhat, but nothing more. >Enemy satellites could even have an infra-red >emitter of some sort hanging out on a boom to >misguide such expensive cannonballs. > >Made in New Zealand --> Brent Callaghan An object moving at 500 mi/min. = 50 mi/sec. = 80 km/sec, weighing, say, 20 kg has a kinetic energy of .5mv*v = (.5)(20 kg)(80k m/s)(80k m/s) = 1.6e+10 J. This is no small crackers, and is going to send any craft spinning fast enough to be hopelessly disoriented, or at least tear off or cripple the entire arm holding a distributed solar array. The boom with the I/R source will provide a nice lever arm to get the craft REALLY spinning. How about having a net of wires cast out from the Kinetic Anti-Satellite Weapon (KASW) that could rip and tear hundreds of square feet of cells and tear up anything with a boom less than 5 m long? If a low-earth satellite has too long an arm with an I/R source, there will be stability problems due to gravity gradients anyway, so they probably wouldn't be designed that way. -- James T. Perkins -- dadla!jamesp, orstcs!jamesp ```` `````` `````` `````` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `` `` `````` ` ` ` ` ` ` `` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ```` ` `````` `` ` ` ` E n t e r p r i s e s It is better to kiss an avocado than to get in a fight with an aardvark
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (08/27/85)
> [The US antisatellite missile] > contains no explosive, using sheer kinetic > energy alone to destroy the victim. > > I'm sure it would punch a nice hole in > a compact satellite and surely disable it.... Bear in mind that this thing strikes at essentially the full orbital velocity of the satellite, about 8 kps. The result is not a hole, but a violent explosion, as both the interceptor and a fair chunk of its target are vaporized by the impact. The interceptor contains no explosive because it's redundant at that velocity. Large solar arrays are unattractive for military satellites anyway, because they are too vulnerable to a handful of gravel arriving the same way. > Enemy satellites could even have an infra-red > emitter of some sort hanging out on a boom to > misguide such expensive cannonballs. This is a valid point; I don't know how they deal with countermeasures. One obvious possibility is multi-wavelength sensors, since a small hot object has a different infrared spectral distribution from a large cool object. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
jamesp@dadla.UUCP (Jim Perkins) (08/28/85)
>An object moving at 500 mi/min. = 50 mi/sec. = 80 km/sec, weighing, say, 20 >kg has a kinetic energy of .5mv*v = (.5)(20 kg)(80k m/s)(80k m/s) = 1.6e+10 J. >This is no small crackers,... > >James T. Perkins -- dadla!jamesp, orstcs!jamesp > Oops! I made an arithmetic boo-boo: Let me restate... An object moving at 500 mi/min. = ~ 10 mi/sec. = 16 km/sec, weighing, say, 20 kg has a kinetic energy of .5mvv = (.5)(20 kg)(16k m/s)(16k m/s) = 2.6e+9 J. This is *STILL* no small crackers,... ;-) -- James T. Perkins -- dadla!jamesp, orstcs!jamesp ```` `````` `````` `````` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `` `` `````` ` ` ` ` ` ` `` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ```` ` `````` `` ` ` ` E n t e r p r i s e s It is better to kiss an avocado than to get in a fight with an aardvark