Shooting down 'Bandit Satellites'

[Jim Choate]

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 less 
> orbits  than Sputnik) over time to make it uneconomical to keep shooting 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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