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Toxicdistortion said:Um...the US has already done it. 20 years ago.
Messenger said:One thing - blowing up a satellite creates a bunch of little fragments that remain in its general orbit. These have a good possibility of disrupting other satellites.
Powerful lasers to burn them out seems like a much better idea.
However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said: "China will not participate in any kind of arms race in outer space."
It really depends on the method employed but if you want to blast a satellite composed of highly durable material to fine rubble it'd be like a frag grenade going off in a place with zero air resistance. Some parts would fall to the Earth, some into outer space and some would spread out along an orbit damaging other satellites.Tex said:Wouldn't the objects just continue to stay in the same orbit? Why would they suddenly enter another satellites orbit? It's not like space is crowded, they are probably quite a ways from each other.
Messenger said:It really depends on the method employed but if you want to blast a satellite composed of highly durable material to fine rubble it'd be like a frag grenade going off in a place with zero air resistance. Some parts would fall to the Earth, some into outer space and some would spread out along an orbit damaging other satellites.
There's a lot of man-made junk orbiting the Earth already, it's just not moving at the speed of a bullet.
Oh the concern would be that it would make space more dangerous, and harm other satellites.Tex said:I don't know that'd they'd crash into Earth ever. I'm just guessing here, but I think they put satellites up far enough that they are basically just locked into an orbit but not being drawn in. If any fragments were to get blown down towards Earth they would just burn up when they reached the atomosphere. Clearly I'm no scientist, I'm just an average guy from Texas, so I could be completely wrong here.
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