Fwd: [IP] Wi Air Force's Scare-Mongering Space Ad Shoves Facts Out of the Airlock

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Byrden <farber1@byrden.com>
Date: May 11, 2008 2:15:11 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Wired: Air Force's Scare-Mongering Space Ad Shoves Facts Out of the Airlock

From: dewayne@warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks)

No, they can't.  Not unless there's some new missile out there that can

strike dozens and dozens of targets, spread out over thousands and

thousands of miles.

There is actually a way for a single missile to destroy every satellite
in a given orbit, all the way round Earth; for example, all the geostationary
satellites are vulnerable.

All it has to do is get into the same orbit, going the other way, and explode.
If it leaves a cloud of millions if tiny fragments, still orbiting against the
traffic at huge speed, then in the frictionless environment of space they
will eventually strike and destroy every machine along the ring.

David

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