Shooting Down a Spy Satellite

Remember that failing spy satellite we reported on a couple of weeks back?  It seems that the US Government has elected for the "Michael Bay" option, deciding that the best solution to two and a half tons of accelerating satellite coming down is seven meters of triple-stage interceptor missile heading up.  We can only hope that they plan to record and YouTube the resulting awesomeness.

The Pentagon have confirmed that this extremely prodigal son is carrying almost half a ton of super-toxic hydrazine fuel - a useful propellant for satellite motors, but one of the reasons we keep it up in space is that it's ridiculously harmful to humans.  Worse, the fuel tank is expected to survive the fiery descent through the atmosphere and gift a random area the size of several football fields with this chemical gift from the skies - unless its descent is made considerably more fiery (and shorter) by a nine and a half thousand kilometers per hour of hit-to-kill kinetic warhead, courtesy of the unsuitably boringly named "Standard Missile 3" system.

Some criticize the plan, claiming that the odds of the impact zone being anywhere occupied are too low to start playing with anti-space weaponry in an era where that's considered "not cool".  Of course, that may be exactly the reason, making this a retaliatory demonstration against China's recent "Don't mind us, we're just exploding things in orbit without warning and could do so again at any time" detonation of one of their weather satellites. Which, incidentally, won China the "Most assholish use of technology on the global stage" award, displacing previous holders France and their "Detonating thermonuclear devices on the opposite side of the planet" entry from 1996.

Another objections is that, like the Chinese test, this explosion could create a new swathe of killer confetti: chunks of metal speeding through the satellite-populated orbits of the Earth, where a single fleck of paint can punch a hole like a high velocity bullet.  This argument is rather weak however - the Chinese satellite was smack dab in the middle of this zone, 800 kilometers up, while the American interception is planned for the thicker atmosphere altitude of 240 km, where the greatly increased drag due to friction with the air is expected to burn up all the wreckage.

With this in mind the debris objections don't have a lot to go on, their official arguments along the lines of "It seems to me like a bad idea", "you would expect a lot more debris", and "these high-energy explosions are very hard to describe" (all quotes from spokesman David Wright) .  When your main arguments are personal opinions and "I can't do the sums", your argument that material will somehow get super-boosted out of the atmosphere into satellite orbital heights by a single explosion is a little hard to take seriously.  In fact, if you could work out how to do that NASA would probably like to hire you. Not to mention that these objections come from the Union of Concerned Scientists who, while doubtless a hardworking and worthy organisation, should really come up with a name that doesn't suggest an unstylish combination of lab coats and handbags.

So is blowing up a storage tanker of lethal fuel in the high atmosphere a good idea?  Probably not, actually - in an ideal world you'd like to avoid that sort of thing - but when the alternative is letting the world spin as a roulette wheel with an explosive-poison-filled ball, it's a difficult choice.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Related Galaxy posts:

Spy Satellite the Size of a Bus Coming Home Faster Than Planned
Orbiting Eyes -Five Things You Didn't Know Satellites Are Doing
Hiding in Plain Sight - Google Maps, Submarine Tunnels & Spy Satellites Over Greenland
Cryptome -The Google of Secrets
The New, Real "Minority Report": How the U.S. Gov't Aims to Catch Criminals That Haven’t Yet Committed a Crime
The Rise of the Surveillance Society—“Big Brother” or Common Sense?
Cyber Warfare: What the Pentagon Security Breech Says About the Future
The Manchurian Bot

Satellite debris fears pace_rss20
Standard Missile 3 to target satellite
Debris field from Chinese satellite destruction

Comments

[Ed mahoney]

As an elementary school science teacher I often use information from the Daily Galaxy to inspire inquiring young minds. I was a bit dismayed when I came to the vulgar editorial coment, "Most assholish use of technology on the global stage" in this report. It was unnecessary and rendered the posting unsuitable for my classroom.

[Scott Maxwell]

My comment is....go for it boys....I want to see if you can hit it. If so...good for you...if not...bad news...back to the drawing board. Either way we all get one hell of a free show.