![]() ![]() When we wake up in the morning and look at the weather forecast, when we use a satnav to get somewhere we’ve never been before, when we listen to the radio or make a mobile phone call, when we buy things online, the chances are that these signals are mediated by satellites in some way. We all rely on space each and every day,” says Wörner. Then, it was a race between superpowers today, it is everything. It is through the creation of space debris that any conflict in orbit would have decidedly Earthbound consequences for us all. However, critics have pointed out that if a piece of technology can track down and grapple a dead satellite out of orbit, it can do the same with a live one – thus becoming a potential weapon.ĭays of future past: a Soviet technician working on Sputnik 1, 1957. As part of that, it is developing ways of removing old spacecraft and pieces of space debris from orbit. The ESA is mandated to pursue only peaceful space exploration and utilisation. Wörner grapples with such duality on a daily basis. Although Harvey says that these particular tests are probably for military purposes, the ability to rendezvous in space is also an essential technique for China to master in order to achieve its ambition of bringing back moon rock samples to Earth. Take the Russian and Chinese manoeuvring satellites as an example. “Many things can be used for peaceful and military purposes,” says Jan Wörner, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA). Blowing up satellites could trigger a chain reaction that swiftly surrounds the Earth with belts of debris It depends on the nature of the conflict whether you go beyond that,” he says.Īlthough treaties already exist that say you can’t put military installations on the moon or weapons of mass destruction into orbit, there is a decidedly grey area. “The immediate form would be cyber-attacks, either against the satellites or the ground stations that control them. Yet Schmitt thinks that any conflict in space is unlikely to start with such brutal measures. The satellite disintegrated into an estimated 150,000 pieces of space debris. The FY-1C satellite was at an altitude of 865km and was hit by the missile travelling at 8km/s. In 2007, they destroyed one of their own weather satellites using a missile launched from Earth. The Chinese have demonstrated other military space options, too. “The real experts in developing small, manoeuvrable satellites that change orbits and make multiple interceptions are the Chinese in their Shijian series,” he says. “The original but larger Russian manoeuvrable military satellite, Polyot, dates to 1963,” says Brian Harvey, a space analyst and author of The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program (Springer). Indeed, the Russians have a history of testing such spacecraft. Some thought it was the Russians testing a future space weapon because such orbital gymnastics are exactly what would be expected from an attack satellite designed to approach another and put it out of operation. In May 2014, the Russians launched a mysterious satellite that was seen to be manoeuvring in orbit. In this day and age, that means attacking the satellites. And in any war, one side will seek to deprive the other of their ability to function. “The reliance upon space is truly extraordinary in contemporary conflict,” says Schmitt. Space war is inevitable because today’s modern militaries use space for everything, from spy satellites to a soldier on a mountaintop using satnav to figure out exactly where he or she is. “I am convinced beyond a scintilla of doubt… It’s going to happen,” says Schmitt. These days, a frontline space war soldier is most likely to be a state-sponsored hacker sitting at a computer terminal sending rogue commands to confuse or shut down an enemy’s satellites. What has prompted this latest interest in space war is that the means by which one country can attack another in space have changed dramatically. ![]() It was a race between superpowers then it’s everything now… However, such systems are hideously expensive, probably outlawed by international treaties and the satellites that carry them are easy targets to shoot down. As they fell from orbit, the rods gathered so much speed that they delivered the explosive power of a nuclear bomb, but without the radioactive fallout. It was a kind of unmanned space bomber that carried tungsten rods to drop on unsuspecting enemies. One in particular was called the Rods from God or the kinetic bombardment weapon. During the cold war, Russia and America imagined many kinds of space weapon. Space has been eyed up as a military asset almost since the beginning of the space race.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |