Economic War with Earth

>How about bringing rocks down into GEO and LEO blowing them up? The
>scattered debris might make those orbits useless for any satellites
>and might even make passage through a difficult proposition.
>
Yes, you could make it essentially impossible to travel from Earth to
Space if you tried hard enough. It would probably be possible to go the
other way though- a heavily armoured, heavy, reentry vehicle could make
it through the whole mess and land safely. It's easier to roll down hill
than up.

There are ways to clear up space junk, but they aren't all that easy.

>Could orbits be designed that deploy debris but leave a "window"
>through which transit can be safely achieved?
>
No, not really. The orbit of the junk starts off in a single orbital
plane more or less, but the orbital plane of each piece independently
spins around the earth; dependent on the minimum altitude of each rock
(perigee), due to the non spherical nature of the earth. There's no
particular way to control it, long term, that I can see- occasionally
there are collisions, and when this happens, each impacting object
explodes, and mostly continue along their previous orbit, with some
minor modifications. But the swept area goes up, increasing the chance
of further collisions.

>Just food for thought.
>
>TangoMan
>

-Ian

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the workers to gather wood,
divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the
vast and endless sea." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery