War in orbit???

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Bill" wrote:
> > >
> > > 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.
> > >
> > The AIMS study is for unaimed debris. In a conflict, the ball
> bearings
> > would be aimed. The study's assumtions are invalid.
> >
> The assumptions still hold. Even though the debris in question can
be
> aimed, the colony can also be moved out of the way. A colony even in
> earth orbit would have to be in high earth orbit. Any missle,
debris,
> etc would have a one week flight time from earth take off to hit the
> colony. By that time, counteractions could easily be made. And if we
> are taking about debris, sending them in a spiral orbit to earth is
a
> lot easier then the other way around.
>
> The reality is that any conflict with a space based power would
> quickly escalate to nuclear levels. As far as I know the human race
> has never fought and survived a full scale nuclear war. For a colony
> destroying the surface of the planet is a real option, because they
> don't live there.
>
> > Nonsense. As mentioned before, even a hollowed out asteroid will
> have
> > large, fragile power and/or thermal systems which can be destroyed
> by
> > well-aimed 'debris' and kept down by repeated attack. No colony
can
> survive
> > without power and/or thermal control for long (a few days,
perhaps).
> >
> That is the kind of systems that would have real defense systems
from
> random debris even if they are at peace.
>
> > Since the colony originally came from Earth, my WAG is that Earth
> would have
> > significant space capabilities. It's true that today's Earth
would
> have a
> > hard time fighting tomorrow's colony, but tomorrow's Earth might
not
> be such
> > a pushover. Of course, today's colony has no military capability
> whatsoever
> > (actually, it doesn't even exist). Finally, when faced with a
> threat, the
> > 10 billion+ people of Earth will probably come up with effective
> weapons,
> > they have consistently done so for thousands of years.
> >
> You are now talking about an earth with significant space
> capabilities. The original assumption was can a small group with
there
> own space capabilities effectively wage war against the earth. I
have
> argued that they can hide the capabilities long enough to establish
a
> colony, and could be a real threat to TODAYS earth.
>
> Bill

It wouldn't even take a direct hit of the colony to kill it.
Detonate a nuclear weapon within a few tens of kilometers and the EM
spike would fry all their electronics. Something like that could be
launched using today's technology, and could probably be launched
within a few hours, given the need.

ed