Board index › General Discussion › News and Current Events

Will Space Debris be Responsible for World War III?

Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

frenchmanflats
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 5 Oct 2015
Age: 49
Posts: 1,052
Location: California

04 Feb 2016, 4:34 am

In recent weeks there has been a bit of speculation that collisions between active satellites and space debris could spark WW III. Vitaly Adushkin from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geosphere Dynamics has been quoted as saying space debris presents a, "special political danger". He cites the hypothetical case in which a satellite is destroyed by a collision with an unknown object.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Will_ ... I_999.html



TheExodus
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

Joined: 16 Dec 2015
Age: 27
Posts: 152
Location: York, England

07 Feb 2016, 9:29 pm

frenchmanflats wrote:
In recent weeks there has been a bit of speculation that collisions between active satellites and space debris could spark WW III. Vitaly Adushkin from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geosphere Dynamics has been quoted as saying space debris presents a, "special political danger". He cites the hypothetical case in which a satellite is destroyed by a collision with an unknown object.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Will_ ... I_999.html


People get too jumpy, politicians primarily. Any unidentified object colliding with government equipment is usually considered a threat to security, which I guess is a reasonable assumption, but they have to go as far as to see it as a transgression.

Frankly, this vigilantism is going to be our downfall, at least in my opinion.


_________________
Such is life, that expressing yourself and the truth has you berated.


Feyokien
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Dec 2014
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,303
Location: The Northern Waste

07 Feb 2016, 9:33 pm

If your refer to North Korea and the satellite they're about to launch, then maybe it could start a small war. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the satellite gets mysteriously destroyed. Not WWIII though, no one's dumb enough, especially nations that have satellites already and know of the risk of space debris.



TheExodus
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

Joined: 16 Dec 2015
Age: 27
Posts: 152
Location: York, England

07 Feb 2016, 9:39 pm

Feyokien wrote:
If your refer to North Korea and the satellite they're about to launch, then maybe it could start a small war. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the satellite gets mysteriously destroyed. Not WWIII though, no one's dumb enough, especially nations that have satellites already and know of the risk of space debris.


No, this is regarding an accidental collision of space debris and equipment. Though speaking on the subject of the NK debacle, nobody really cares enough to get involved with them. It's all saber rattling, that's about it. Give them sanctions, jobs a goodun.


_________________
Such is life, that expressing yourself and the truth has you berated.


naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,101
Location: temperate zone

09 Feb 2016, 6:31 am

Good question.

Its amazing what they are able to get tabs on in space: they can track not only satellites, but pieces of satellites as they orbit the earth.

But its also amazing what they miss. Nobody saw that space boulder coming that streaked across the sky of Russia a couple of years ago that shook up the country with sonic booms.

If either a natural pebble sized asteroid, or a man made piece of space litter (like a screw) hits a satellite at 18 thousand mph (enough to demolish a truck sized satellite) ,and if that satellite just happens to be a spy satellite that just happens to be monitoring some sensitive thing in the rival country's territory (like a nuclear program) the moment it happens it might well look suspicious to the country owning the spy satellite who may not have been aware of the existence of the projectile that hit it.

May not cause a war right then and there, but it could raise tensions.

As I understand it the whole human race is going to have to take periodic moratoria on satellite launches every several decades from now on because the lower earth orbits will get saturated with both satellites and man made debris.

Stop launching, then wait for orbital decay to cause our stuff already up there to fall back to earth (and get burned up in the atmosphere), and then go back launching again. Sounds like a real drag!