Posted on 11/04/2004 7:49:22 PM PST by conelrad
Wasn't this movie on TV last month? Mars Attacks Earth
Yes indeed. Jeffrey Lewis is a Grade-A fool if he really believes the crap he's peddling.
Any enemy who wants to defeat us, must first deal with the unbelievable advantages we gain from our extensive use of satellites and space. We know that, and our enemies know that. Jeffrey Lewis apparently doesn't know that -- but then, reality has never bothered the sorts of people who write for fish-wraps with names like "Arms Control Today."
And Lewis is an even bigger fool if he didn't learn anything from the suddenly-revealed WMD programs of India, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, India (and the list goes on).
Sheesh. What a moron.
I recall reading something about even tracking lost screws from a repair mission.
OTOH, wasn't about a year ago that they "found" a secondary booster from an Apollo mission
orbiting between the Earth and Moon?
This is actually a huge issue, near and far term.
Near term, the primary threat is jamming. U.S. military in Iraq is critically dependent on space based resources for communications between far flung combat forces. While military communications satellites have some degree of protection from jamming, these satellites are either old technology and/or are extremely limited in the amount of bandwidth they can provide.
The Coalition forces lease commercial satellites to link forces throughout the theater (ironically, they are satellites owned by France). It is trivially easy to jam a commercial satellite (in fact, you could do it mostly with mail-order parts available over the Internet -many even available at Radioshack), and hard to pinpoint where exactly the jamming is coming from. While the life expectancy of an Iraqi air-defense radar during the ground combat phase of the war was on the order of 15 minutes, it is not clear that the AF would do anywhere near as well on a ground-based jammer targeting a specific commercial satellite at a specific orbital position.
Far term, more and more countries are aquiring orbital launch capabilities. Once you can get something into orbit at will, it is a relatively easy (and low-tech)problem in orbital mechanics to get that object to crash into a geosynchronous satellite.
In spite of these problems, Congress has continually reduced the funding for protected military communications satellites despite a greatly increased demand for their resources.
-R
Thunderstorms don't create a gigantic electronics-destroying electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The crippling effects of a nuclear first strike to create an EMP have long been known.
It is trivially easy to jam a commercial satellite (in fact, you could do it mostly with mail-order parts available over the Internet -many even available at Radioshack), and hard to pinpoint where exactly the jamming is coming from.You're going to need to some actual 'resources' to do some of this: like, a dish capable of some appreciable gain and this imposes some tolerance requirements on said 'dish' for the wider-bandwidth 'circuits' you wish to jam (I'd like to know WHICH components you think are obtainable for Radio Shack ot do this too).
It is a doable task to find those land-based 'sources' too:
Excerpt:
Location system puts satellite jammers on the runDeliberate jamming of communications to and from space satellites is being overcome with a system that identifies and locates the source of the jamming in minutes.
The satID system developed by the QinetiQ science and technology company in Britain is claimed to be able to pinpoint the transmitters of the interference to within 10 km.
Its geolocation service using the system is already helping protect broadcasters and other satellite users from loss of service and the US Department of Defense has bought two of the total geolocation systems.
QinetiQ says that film stories depicting villains taking over the airwaves in dramas such as Superman and James Bond are no longer just fiction.
During the last football World Cup, a cult group jammed Chinese TV broadcasts over the Sino satellite.
More recently, Voice Of America broadcasts were blocked from being transmitted to the Middle East.
Now, the British company says it can combat such satellite jamming, explaining:
"By locating the transmitters of the interference, QinetiQ alerts governments, regulators and satellite operators to the source of an attack.
The satID system works by using two intercept stations to track the interfering signal both in the target satellite and an adjacent satellite which will be close enough to receive some of the beam from the offending transmitter.
This knowledge about their velocity and position is used to pinpoint the source of interference. Interference may be accidental, the result of faulty equipment or incorrect operation of ground terminals.
To begin with, nobody at the Pentagon – nobody anywhere, in fact – really has a firm grasp on what's actually out there, circling the Earth. There are dozens of satellites, thousands of pieces of man-made debris, as well as an array of space rocks. But no one's quite sure of where, exactly, it all is.
Not so sure about that. I understood that some huge number of natural and man-made orbital debris pieces are systematically tracked on radar, down to the size of a golf-ball and with centimeter-precision. I don't recall where I read that, but it was an official claim (not just a blog or some conspiracy site).
Not at the Pentagon, to be sure. But perhaps some agency located above Colorado Springs ......
-R
Thunderstorms don't create a gigantic electronics-destroying electromagnetic pulse (EMP).You are SEVERLY over-estimating the effects of EMP; you aren't factoring in a few, well-recognized physically limiting factors that enter into such a scenario.
EMP won't deliver NEAR the punch that a nearby lightning strike delivers, not to mention what a DIRECT strike delivers ...
Suffice it to say, this wide-spread EMP damage stuff is much-repeated cannard of the technically ill-informed ...
I am not sure what the backup is on the GPS systems but it sure seem we would be screwed if a couple of satelites were taken out.
Please put me on your Space Ping list.
Thanks.
Hopefully, by the time the threat is real, most of the world will have become peaceful democracies or hopeless third world countries.
But the chances of a space Pearl Harbor is probably small in the next 20 years. We are the only superpower and a bold military attack would be answered. We know our vulnerabilities and could cope. Dumb bombs work.
Nope. Military communications satellites (DSCS, MILSTAR, UFO) are almost exclusively GEO.
Many military intel and reconnaissance satellites are LEO though (less atmosphere to peer/listen through). This is a common misconception promulgated by Tom Clancy movies. -R
bump
Yup. There are contingency plans, but jamming is a bigger threat to GPS right now.
One interesting fact that many don't know about GPS is that the service can be taken away from commercial receivers while preserving service to military ones. This is to deny the benefits of GPS to the enemy during wartime. We haven't had to do it yet, but it is the big reason why the French and Russians are trying to build a service that the U.S. doesnt control.
-R
I am personally far more concerned by the infiltration of the New World Order by Reptilians from the constellation Draco and their influence on the monetary system exercised through the Illuminati, Masons, Templars and the James Gang. They are, afterall, just the advance force for the Annunaki, who will turn us in to slaves to mine their gold.
(Sorry, gotta run! C2C is on soon!)
There is the ability to deny selectively in an area too; like the continent of South Africa, Europe, etc. ...
It is trivially easy to jam a commercial satellite (in fact, you could do it mostly with mail-order parts available over the Internet -many even available at Radioshack), and hard to pinpoint where exactly the jamming is coming from.
You're going to need to some actual 'resources' to do some of this: like, a dish capable of some appreciable gain and this imposes some tolerance requirements on said 'dish' for the wider-bandwidth 'circuits' you wish to jam (I'd like to know WHICH components you think are obtainable for Radio Shack ot do this too).
Components for commercial C and Ku-band satellite terminals are highly modularized and commoditized now - just look at the DirecTV and Dish receiver systems. Basically you have a $40 aperture/LNB, a $15 length of RG-6 coax, and a $50 receiver. They run sales where they GIVE the equipment away.
Trust me, all the components to construct a jammer are CHEAP and readily available over the Internet. All the technical information necessary to select the correct components is published on the Internet BY THE SATELLITE PROVIDERS THEMSELVES. 'nuff said.
The satID system developed by the QinetiQ science and technology company in Britain is claimed to be able to pinpoint the transmitters of the interference to within 10 km.
10 km is useless for military purposes. What are you going to do, bomb every satellite dish you can find within 10km of that location ? Have you ever been to the Middle East ? EVERY building of any has at least ONE dish on the roof.
This is an important issue and we *are* vulnerable. -R
Well, they tracked a Gemini astronaut's Hasselblad camera all the way to re-entry (he let go if it during an EVA), and that was back in the 1960s-1970s.
I've heard a figure of 25,000 man-made objects tracked.
Good, I want Rummy to stay............
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