[meteorite-list] Fw: U.S. To Shoot Down Defunct Spy Satellite

Wed Feb 20 14:55:36 EST 2008

Hi,

    Willing to be as paranoid as the next guy, but
the choice of DU does not seem a reasonable one
for an anti-ballistic-missile missile's kinetic warhead.
DU's high density makes for a very small but massive
projectile, useful for penetration of an armored target.
Satellites are not armored for obvious reasons of
weight. A small high-density warhead would go right
through a satellite (or a missile) and merely leave a hole.

    No, I think you'd want to smack it with something
that had considerable surface area, or something with
extensions. The whole point of the impact would be
to transfer as much energy to the target as possible,
not to concentrate it in one spot.

    Not being privy to the finer points of anti-missile
kinetic warhead design, these would be general design
criteria, I would think. Boeing, the contractor, calls it
"hit-to-kill technology" (no details provided):
http://www.allbusiness.com/defense-aerospace/defense-industry-defense-electronics/6008984-1.html

    Here's an unclassified paper on the warhead's guidance
mechanisms:
http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA408904&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
Brush up your math skills; get your 3D vectors ready!
It's a moving-mass flight actuator, like a hang glider flyer
shifting his weight to direct his flight. One might opine
that dense weights would be needed to do that, but they
would be small compared to the warhead weight.

    OK! This WIRED Blog agrees with you that depleted
uranium is a logical choice. Fascinating piece; read it:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/the-weapon-that.html
<quote>the SM-3 destroys its target by ramming into with
lots and lots of sheer kinetic energy -- more than 130
megajoules worth, or "the equivalent of a 10 ton truck
traveling at 600 miles per hour," it[s] maker says.<unquote>

    But the SM-3 is not intended for this job:
<quote>For this proposed shoot-down, the Pentagon is claiming
that it will make modifications to three SM-3 interceptors
so that they can look for the malfunctioning satellite.  The
modifications involve changing the software to target a satellite
rather than a missile, David Wright of the Union of Concerned
Scientists tells New Scientist. "This interceptor is really intended
for missiles traveling at 3 to 4 kilometers per second; the satellite
they're going to be shooting at has a speed of 7 to 8 kilometers
per second."<unquote>

    The comments on this Blog piece argue the DU or No-DU
question exhaustively, and they do so cogently. Your best answers
(or the best answers we can come up with) are in there. The warhead
is so full of mechanisms that the dense "kill" component cannot
be very large (dead weight), maybe like a bee-bee inside the "bullet."

    It would seem to me that all the SM-3 needs to do is pop up
out of the atmosphere with little motion north or south and position
itself right in the path of the satellite approaching at 15,000 mph
and cause a collision, like a car pulling out into an intersection
that cars fly through at high speeds. A pretty satisfying crash
should result!

    And there are other dense substances besides uranium, you
know. Tungsten would be an excellent choice as it would not
vaporize easily but stay in a solid bullet-like configuration, more
so than uranium, although I'm not knocking the role of hot plasma,
either. But at these speeds, the impact does not require the use of
hard or dense materials. Remember that the Columbia was "taken
out" by a piece of FOAM.

Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Ford" <mark.ford at ssl.gb.com>
To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 11:10 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fw: U.S. To Shoot Down Defunct Spy Satellite

I don't know all that much about ballistic missiles... but presumably
this ballistic missile they are planning to use, uses large amounts of
DU? (Depleted uranium)  hmm .. sniff that air...

Another thing to look out for tonight, A Total lunar eclipse see
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Mr
EMan
Sent: 17 February 2008 03:14
To: Meteorite List
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fw: U.S. To Shoot Down Defunct Spy
Satellite

How do the skeptics know that the attack will come from below and not
from above?

Eman
Thinking outdside the box
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