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US Claims Satellite Shoot-Down Success
Readers of Slashdot last valentines day will remember discussing US Plans to Shoot down a damaged spy satellite. An anonymous reader noted that the US is
reporting success last night, thus saving us from hydrazine exposure. Of course this makes me wonder- if it's this easy, wouldn't an international super power war pretty much immediately mean the downing of every satellite in orbit?
High orbit and low orbit are not even close to the same thing in regards to space junk causing trouble. China's mess will stay up there for decades or even centuries.
It wasn't an anti-satellite missile. It was an anti-missile missile, and it only worked because of the decayed orbit of the satellite. This missile would not be able to touch a "working" satellite.
Really? Considering that the US shot down a satellite over two decades ago, from a missile fired from an F15 of all things, I don't think the USA had a whole lot to prove. In fact, I think the military people are smart enough to not give any inkling of just what they are capable of (like the amazing fact the F-117A stealth fighter was kept secret for so long, until its unveiling during Desert Storm).
What irked me the most was China's whiny statements about the test, which was extremely benign in every regard, while China themselves produced a huge band of debris in a very useful polar orbit for no legitimate reason whatsoever.
Better known as 318230.
I disagree. The reasons we shot it down were:
1) Because the risk to human life was non-zero
2) To prevent sensitive technology from going into the wrong hands. (You can bet that there would have been a mad dash to salvage at ground zero by just about everybody once it went down)
3) To further test our ABM technology.
4) To show everybody once again that we kick ass.
5) And most importantly: Because there were no downside to doing it. This wasn't a dangerous mission that put soldiers or civilian lives at risk. We launched a missile, and if it missed, no big deal, no harm done. But if it was a success, we can celebrate because of reasons #1-#4.
There really isn't any valid argument for not trying this operation.
I think the whole discussion of missile tech and the tank idea are both kinda of silly. I think the story was one that the military used to justify shooting a missile, but not to test the missile or any other tech.
Mostly likely they were just worried about sensitive technology that might survive reentry potentially falling into Chinese or other hands. While not a new sat, it wasn't really that old either. I'm guessing decent optics and other gear on there, including comm equipment. Why risk any chance of parts of that surviving and landing in even a damaged state someplace that a foreign power might be able to get a hold of it.
Of course this idea was never even remotely touched on, which I'm guessing is exactly what the military wanted. They are probably more than happy to be getting accused of testing a missile, it means people aren't talking about the thing that really concerned them.
I would say your boss needs to understand the most basic maxim of IT:
"In theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are not."
Anyone who has actually had to do installs knows that ABSOLUTELY NO AMOUNT OF LAB TESTING WILL PREPARE YOU COMPLETELY FOR THE REAL WORLD. See: Murphy's Law. See Also: Any angry IT guy: "Dammit, it's ALWAYS something!"