Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

drkohler said:

Ryuu96 said:

Yeah, the nuke in space would be for use on satellites, not on Earth.

Lol no. For this you use small rockets. Price of nuke: tens of $Millions, price of rocket: less than $1000.

You do not explode a nuke in outer space, you either drop it onto an area, casing destruction or you exlode the nuke inside the upper atmosphere, trying to NEMP military defence objects (which, by now, people know how to protect against NEMPs).

A rocket would take out one satellite (though debris could incapacitate others, even spiraling up into a chain reaction called the Kessler syndrome that takes out all the satellites in that orbit), while a nuke would take out many at once. It also has the advantage of not cluttering the orbit with debris, which, as the Kessler Syndrome describes, could make space launches unviable as the risks of getting blown up during the ascend (and thus creating even more debris) would be just too big for centuries to come.

While satellites are protected against radiation to some degree, a NEMP would overwhelm them as adequate protection against those would simply weigh too much. Most are actually much more protected against radiation by the magnetosphere than by any onboard protection.

Also, a rocket that can reach space, even launched from a high speed high-flying plane, doesn't come for anywhere near that cheap

Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 15 February 2024