Comments on: Any conflict in space will be much slower and more deliberate than a Star Wars scene

By: Lucklucky

Lucklucky — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 07:38:30 +0000

“Any conflict in space will be much slower and more deliberate than a Star Wars scene,”

Chess?

By: Gavin Longmuir

Gavin Longmuir — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 17:55:43 +0000

Kinetic attack on an enemy satellite seems like inside the box thinking. How about high powered ground-based lasers (or even space-based lasers) which would fry the electronics in the enemy satellite, rendering it useless without creating debris one might come to regret?

Much better would be some method of attack which somehow spoofed the enemy satellite — say, causing the European Galileo GPS system to send Euro-missiles to the wrong targets?

Of course, China’s approach is to become the sole supplier for certain essential components of Western satellites (high quality, rapid delivery, low price). And dumb Westerners fall for it every time. As the old proverb says, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

By: Bruce Purcell

Bruce Purcell — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 05:22:34 +0000

Assume any war in near-Earth space will leave giant clouds of metalled gravel in all the orbits we’ve found useful so far. What next?

1) No more satellites, or only cheap, easily replaceable satellites.
2) Try new funky orbits, space boy! Previously inconvenient and ignored orbital slots will be safer.
3) Heavily armored spaceships and satellites.
4) Minesweepers funded by everyone who wants to use space.
5) Travel to the Moon or other planets is no longer much riskier than an orbit around the Earth.