Orbital Weapons
The next generation of space based weapons.
As seen in: Many videogames and anime series.
International treaties ban the placement of Nuclear weapons in space, but that hasn’t stopped many top military scientists experimenting with the idea of more “conventional” (And I used the term loosely) weapons to hang over our heads- quite literally.
While we will probably not have GDI’s Ion cannon blasting large holes in the planet any time soon, we do have a couple of ideas that show some promise, out of these the one that’s being talked about most of all is the “Kinetic bombardment system”, known as “Rods from God” to it’s friends. I’m amazed that wasn’t copyright of a porn producer…
Time for a science lesson! Shit. There go half my readers… Most conventional weapons cause damage in one of two ways, Kinetic energy (Or slamming into something very fast- like bullets), and explosives (blowing stuff up). Kinetic weapons are limited in their effectiveness by two things: Mass (how much of something there is) and velocity (how fast it’s going). An object’s Kinetic energy is equal to its mass, times its velocity, squared, and then divided by two.
Kinetic Energy.= 
To cut the entire BS, the heavier something is, and the faster it’s going, the more it’s going to hurt when it hits something. This is also known as the “common sense” or the “oh dear God a trai[n] *SPLAT*…” principle.
Now, you”re all familiar with the idea of dropping a penny off the Eiffel tower to kill someone right? Gravity accelerates the penny to great speeds, which means more kinetic energy, which means it can cause someone serious harm when it hits them. So lets take that idea and run with it. Instead of dropping it from the Eiffel tower, let’s drop it from orbit. And instead of dropping a penny, lets drop something bigger and heavier like… oh I don’t know- a telegraph pole made of tungsten.
E voilá. You have the Kinetic Bombardment system. Satellites in orbit are loaded with large tungsten rods which are dropped on targets (hopefully surviving re-entry), and may be guided by small, on board rockets to hit their targets. Thanks to GPS and advanced targeting software, in theory these buggers can hit a specific building in a city. Not that it really matters, as they build up so much energy on the way down that they’re equivalent to a small nuclear bomb by the time they impact.. And all it is is a lump of metal! No explosives, no nuclear material, nothing. Just tungsten.
Is it likely to happen any time soon?
George Bush thinks so. America’s had plans to build a “star wars” program for some time now. These seem to keep changing emphasis though. A decade or so back it was going to be a laser defense system to shoot down ICBMs, and now we’ve got Rods From God. The main problem is cost. Putting things into orbit is VERY expensive. And the heavier things are, the more fuel you need to get them from down here, to up there. And of course, with a KBS, you need the payload to be heavy or it wont work. Then you also need a satellite and control system to mount the rods (Oh stop sniggering!) on. We probably have the technology; it’s a question of financial viability though. Only time will tell, though I’d say we should have the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over our heads by 2025, assuming it happens at all.
Are there any other ideas on the cards?
Yes actually! These range from very possible, such as high altitude hypersonic bombers (Aircraft that climb to the edge of the atmosphere, enabling them to move at speeds so great they can get anywhere on earth in two hours), to the more unlikely solar cannons (Which work on the same principle as the weapon Archimedes supposedly deployed against the Romans in 213 BC. Basically, you put lots of parabolic (curved, dish shaped) mirrors into orbit, and have them all focus the sun’s light onto one point, roasting anything that’s there and sending every environmentalist on the planet nuts. It’s sort of lime frying an ant with lots of magnifying glasses.]
Personally I think the hypersonic fighters may well become a reality, but death rays? The theory is sound, but the actually costs and planning are mind boggling.
If you’re interested in space warfare, Issue 193 of BBC focus magazine has a special on it, and is well worth reading.
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One Response to “Orbital Weapons”
On September 13, 2009 at 3:40 am
By any chance have you read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Heinlein, I believe? I think that Asimov wrote about the “Swords of Damocles” weapons systems 30 or more years ago as well. Right now with GPS guidance systems that can handle being fired in artillery shells and the fact that the higher G launch the cheaper… it makes launching with the Shuttle more expensive than high G rockets that might rattle the loads a bit more. One might nearly launch these packages into space with rail guns.
…of course an enemy government would notice the building of rail guns and “super canons” wouldn’t they? But those kinetic orbital weapons platforms avoid the nuclear issue don’t they.
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