the nazi's were using silver instead of platinum in their WWII experimental jets, and some jet packs use H2O2 and silver as their power source. and given the difference in price, silver is a bargain. but i think your main problem would be H2O2. The stuff used in rockets is 100%, in english we call it an explosive oxidizer. A spill of 35% H2O2 will bleach your skin faster than you can say fuck, 100% is just nuts. Producing it is a bitch too. This isn't ur average fermentation of ethanol. to make h2o2 you have to aquire a few questionable chemicals, such as 2-pentyl-anthraquinone. Not to mention you need pure hydrogen and oxygen. Also there dangers in raising the concentration from working 40% to dangerous but useful 100%. more on this later atek3 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Choate" <ravage@ssz.com> To: <cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 4:16 PM Subject: CDR: Re: Shooting down 'Bandit Satellites'
On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, An Metet wrote:
[Sorry about the name. "Pirate" satellites don't sound 'dangerous' enough to need shooting down.]
I liked it :)
Suppose can-sats WERE launched illegally, and then started broadcasting <time synchronisation signals/OTP/other cypherpunk related> signals, along with a spoken commentary by Radio Free North America (so Joe Sixpack has an excuse when those nice detector van gentlemen knock on his door and ask why he's listening to 128.0 FM)
Ok, we get the technology down to say $10k per bird. That would at least be within the budget of most 'hobbyist' to come up with in a year.
Technology wise, I'm real keen on the Hydrogen Peroxide Catalyst engines, especially Platinum catalyst. Platinum is problematic, rare & expensive. Say 1 out of 1,000 potential hobbyist can afford it. Hydrogen Peroxide can at least theoretically be done in a garage lab, so we'll leave this 1-1 for now.
Miniaturize everything, since we've got chemical heat we can use Peltier's to make power. Venting expanded gas is going to be problematic unless we're symmetric. We could also use this same system for small orbital corrections.
Whole thing will fit in 6in. OD pipe.
What could a the US Government do about the satellite, other than make an example out of the miscreants who launched it?
Simply outlaw any amateur rocketry, crack down on (like guns but w/o 2nd Amendment protection) non-commercial industrial sales of machine tools, etc.
Would they be able to physically shoot at it, jam its signal or burn out its electronics from the ground or aircraft altitude?
All of the above, as well as things like Brilliant Pebbles or laser/maser/micro-wave assaults. The USAF has had at least one successful launch from a high altitude interceptor via missile, it was back in the early/mid 80's (?: F-15).
Could someone put up enough disposable 'bandit-sats' (expecting to make
orbits than Sputnik) over time to make it uneconomical to keep shooting
less them
out of the sky?
Brilliant Pebbles. All the 'Brilliant' class weapons are space based (sort of like 'Prarie' has to do with submarine ASW technology - eg Prarie Masker, a bubble diffuser.) There's also one that is like a giant shotgun, I don't remember it's designator :(
How easy would it be for the launch crew to stay ahead of ground based forces?
Who has the technology lead? Is the 'movement' organized or a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off? I'd think the chickens would be very hard to stop. The communications could be used to identify the others.
The reality is that an army of 10,000 well armed individuals acting upon a common belief and with common goals, but acting completely independently and unknown to each other, would be next to impossible to stop. Even if the other army were 10 or more the size.
I'm guessing they could mount rockets one to two months ahead of launch date and abandon the site, assuming the rockets don't need constant attention.
Yes, this sort of requirement pretty much limits it to either solids or hybrids, and the occassional exotic (ie H2O2/Pt). Note that storage of H2O2 reliably for more than a few weeks is probably prohibitive.
Would directional transmissions from ground to satellite be traceable (and would this depend on whether there are other birds in the part of the sky I want to send to)?
It depends on the 'splatter' of the entenna you were transmitting with. If it has a lot of side lobes then probably. It would help to make it digital, spread sprectrum, encrypted, and burst. You'll need lots of power because the Can-Sat antenna can't be that big (it could be a long wire of course).
Would retrieval of a returned film capsule be possible before Air Force helicopters descended on the landing site?
How fast will it come down? What sort of warning window for the boys in blue? How far are they from the recovery site? Is this a new event or something they've seen before?
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The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------