• venusaur@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          Never say never. Somebody like you probably thought going into space would never happen. It’ll happen and it won’t hurt to be at the frontier.

          • Archangel@lemm.ee
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            25 days ago

            Lol! You don’t know what his “Golden Dome” is, huh? It’s basically the satellite defense system Reagan wanted to build back in the 80’s. Except he called the project “Star Wars”.

            If they decide to build it, it will probably bankrupt the country, and still not work as intended. Even the most competent people wouldn’t be able to make this work…and we all know Trump only hires the most incompetent people, so…yeah. It’ll most likely get hacked on the 2nd day of operation, and used to wipe the US off the globe.

              • Archangel@lemm.ee
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                24 days ago

                Satellite self-defense systems are actually pretty efficient at protecting a satellite, and they don’t pose an undo risk to the rest of us in the ground.

                But any kind of orbital missile defense system, is going to have to be inconceivably large and prohibitively expensive, just to reach a point of basic viability. The planet is huge. And considering that the kinds of attacks that systems like these are designed to prevent, will be traveling at orbital velocities…you need to have missile systems everywhere. If you don’t, then you won’t be able to “catch” the hostile missiles you’re trying to intercept.

                That means potentially thousands, if not tens or even hundreds of thousands, of launch satellites in orbit. And we’re not talking about small satellites here. In order to accelerate to the kinds of speeds required to intercept an ICBM, these missiles will need a lot of fuel…or they’ll have to have even more of them in orbit, so that any path that ICBM takes will have at least one defense satellite in a position to passively intercept it.

                Low to medium Earth orbit would have to be blanketed in these satellites. And that’s just to protect one country. If the US starts doing this…so will China. And Russia. And everyone else who’s afraid of these satellites will be used offensively as well as defensively. Because the same missiles that can potentially intercept an ICBM in flight, can also do an incredible amount of damage to a surface target, with little to no warning. They would be everywhere above us. All of us. And could just drop a missile directly down on any point below them.

                This gets even more complicated, when you think about the satellite to satellite defenses required to defend each one of these launch platforms from each other. Logistically speaking, it turns into a cluster-fuck, really fast. You could potentially see billion dollar satellites getting shot out of the sky as soon as they reach orbit, and before they have a chance to reach their intended firing positions. How many times could you stand to lose them, before the cost of trying to send them up there became prohibitive? How much of your GDP would you be willing to spend in order to simply maintain that system?

                • venusaur@lemmy.world
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                  24 days ago

                  Other countries wouldn’t just be shooting down our satellites for the same reason they don’t just blow up our naval or aerial fleets. Moot point.

                  Baby steps. Start small and build it up. Figure out new, more feasible weapons. Other countries are already thinking about and experimenting with space defense. Not just us.

                  When your bones have been repurposed for crude oil and when all of Earth’s resources have gone dry, the people of that time will think of space military the same way we think of the Air Force.

                  • Archangel@lemm.ee
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                    24 days ago

                    "start small and build up doesn’t work. Total cove age is the only way to ensure protection. That’s what makes systems like this ridiculous. Unless you have total coverage, you may as well not have anything at all, because it would be functionally useless.

          • Tiger666@lemmy.ca
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            25 days ago

            Like everything else Drumpf does; this is a scam. Your dear leader will never implement this. It is an obvious protection racket. Reagan had Star Wars and that was never implemented because it would have cost trillions in the eighties. Another conservative grift to increase funds for the military.