War in orbit???

You are assuming that the colony is close enough to earth. You are
also assuming the colony is a O'neil style habitat, instead of a
hollowed portion of an asteroid. You are assuming the colony is not
equipped with earth survelliance systems capable of detecting
launches, in fact you are assuming the colony is in orbit around the
earth, instead of an orbit parallel to the earths.

The reality is that earth defenses are built to fight a terrestrial
enemy. We can't defend that satellites it puts up now even from
terrestrial foes.

As for the ball bearing idea, you would literally need billions before
it becomes a significant problem. One of the problems studied at AIMS
and found to be insignificant was the 'artificial' meteors created by
the mass drivers. All the mass used to move material from the moon to
the colony would end up as earth orbiting debris that could be a
hazard for the colony. The results showed that with a billion tonnes
orbiting the earth, you will get one broken window every 3 years.

There is no simple way to destroy a space colony. The earth military
is not equipped to send troops, and any automated system could be
intercepted and destroyed weeks before it becomes a danger. To do it
successfully the earth would have to bring the war to the colony, that
means literally setting up a sizable presence in space, and be able to
counter-move what the colony is doing.

Bill

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Al Globus wrote: