STILL OFF TOPIC: Re: America needs therapy

[Karsten M. Self]

on Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 05:19:09PM +0100, Ken Brown (k.brown at ccs.bbk.ac.uk)
wrote:
> Once the catcher is high enough it ought to be possible to set the
> launcher so that missed catches zip round Earth & head out. After all,
> at Lunar OV it "wants" to be in a high orbit.  Achieving re-entry
> through Earth's atmosphere - sorry that should be "entry" it wasn't
> here in the first place - needs some precision.

The Heppenheimer book cited here previously posited a catcher fabricated
out of bulletproof material, in lunar orbit.  Of roughly conical form,
and rotating about its axis, material launched via railgun from the
lunar surface would be caught, then ferried to an L4 or L5 construction
point.  Heppenheimer's scenario envisioned using pellet shooters as
reaction mass.  Matter flux in orbit is such that operations could be carried
out for extended periods of time with no perceptable increase in
micrometeorite impacts.

> And if the loads are anything smaller than a large truck, they ought not
> to harm Earth anyway. Just a pretty light show for anyone watching the
> skies. Nothing like as fast as natural meteors.

For loosly aggregated masses, possibly even larger:  they'd simply
disintegrate in orbit.  Though try to justify the low odds to the poor
sap who *does* happen to be in the wrong place.

> Anything big enough to do damage on Earth will be visible from Earth.

Lunar material has an albedo of about 3%.  Its radar signiture may be
better.  But there isn't currently a tracking system that's designed to
detect large amounts of new orbit insertions.  Yes, we track dead
satellites, lost space hardware, and the odd glove.  Hundreds of
thousands of stone-tossings, I'm not so sure.

> So it isn't at all a useful weapons launching system. If you are
> trying to drop big hot rocks on cities, they will have time to run
> away (low tech solution)

Cities can't run.  Their populations can.  But it would take a day or
two for a typical US conurbanation.  The infrastructure remains
particularly vulnerable.

Better yet:  water strike.

If you're particularly devious, aim for an unstable undersea slope
seismic region.

Heinlein's good history here, particularly if you're into harsh
mistresses.

Peace.

--
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