Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Gabriel]

Presumably you'd just fly your big rock (or similarly heavy object) up into orbit affixed to a satellite such that all you need to do is tell it when to drop it. Not sure why you'd have to originate it in space somehow.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying it would be easy, or that it would go unnoticed, or even that it would necessarily be feasible. Just that it seems considerably simpler to set up and activate than orbital nukes, and effectively require zero maintenance.

Like Veggie50 said, you'd still need to attach engines to the rock so you can actually launch it towards Earth from the orbit, and then you'd just need to maintain those engines, not to mention keep refueling the course correction engines so it won't deorbit due to atmospheric drag. It's essentially almost the same amount of maintenance needed as an orbital nuke station would need. Plus to achieve anything even remotely in the ballpark of a nuclear explosion, either the rock or the engines attached to it would need to be absolutely gigantic.

[Flarelaine]

Officially, nobody does last I recall. There's significant concerns around militarizing space and the risks and consequences that come with it.

The Outer Space Treaty boils down to "let's not open that can of worms".

[Elder Millennial]

Because that’s not how orbit works… there’s several reasons why this is a fantasy.

- How do you get a rock up to the satelite? It’s impossible with our current way of bringing things into orbit. Literally everything we bring up is made specifically to be light weight for that reason.

- What happens when a satelite drops a rock? It orbits along with the satelite. It doesn’t just drop down.

- Even if you did get the rock to accelerate towards earth, calculating it’s trajectory precisely enough to even hit the right COUNTRY is incredibly complicated.

A viable non nuclear space based weapon would be basically a satellite with some onboard propulsion system for a relatively quick repositioning capability and a "cold" metal rod of a few kg to dozens of kg made of something that would survive and not melt during a kinetic re-entry. You can drop it on something and demolish a city block or a large chunk of a military installation with a weapon that has no electronics so it can't be messed with and which would drop from orbit in a matter of minutes.

These are not nukes. To get anything as destructive as a nuke...the thing you're dropping would have to weigh tons. It's not impossible....but at that point, you might as well just drop a nuke.

[Iphie]

Now what to make of this...

I wouldn't put it totally past putin to actually want Biden as, it cannot be denied, that guy is so much more stable than Trump. At the same time I don't think this endorsement is so hot at this time.

Edit: the statements made by Trump that he would let russia do whatever they want can backfire for putin: "if Trump would allow it, then why isn't he doing it?" Might an ultranationalist reason. Putting him in a position where he has no other choice.

[Benggaul]

Now what to make of this...

Simple: Absolutely nothing. How Putin feels about the US candidates isn't worth printing since, as we've known for pretty much as long as we've been alive, Russia's primary weapon against the West is propaganda. His endorsements (or lack thereof) are no doubt calculated to sow doubt and/or confusion, so why bother giving them air to breathe?

[Corvus]

Pootie wants Trump but if he says that out loud then it will used against Trump. This is just reverse psychology and so Trump can use it to attack Biden.

He is already claiming Biden will 'gift' Ukraine to russia.

[Wilian]

Now what to make of this...

What to make of that? That is Putin playing the US election game in favour of Trump and Trump already latched on it in a recent rally. Now there's also MAGA people going about how Biden is in Putin's pocket etc. This was calculated response by Putin to try help Trump candidancy.

[Gabriel]

A viable non nuclear space based weapon would be basically a satellite with some onboard propulsion system for a relatively quick repositioning capability and a "cold" metal rod of a few kg to dozens of kg made of something that would survive and not melt during a kinetic re-entry. You can drop it on something and demolish a city block or a large chunk of a military installation with a weapon that has no electronics so it can't be messed with and which would drop from orbit in a matter of minutes.

These are not nukes. To get anything as destructive as a nuke...the thing you're dropping would have to weigh tons. It's not impossible....but at that point, you might as well just drop a nuke.

They are not viable weapon until you can get the mass up to something like several tons. Terminal velocity for shit entering the atmosphere and not falling apart is something like Mach 10, and at those speeds something weighing couple of dozen kg is no different from what a railgun would be capable of. Sure it will penetrate some bunker roof, but it will be no where near of "demolishing a city block".

[Iphie]

They are not viable weapon until you can get the mass up to something like several tons. Terminal velocity for shit entering the atmosphere and not falling apart is something like Mach 10, and at those speeds something weighing couple of dozen kg is no different from what a railgun would be capable of. Sure it will penetrate some bunker roof, but it will be no where near of "demolishing a city block".

That wholly depends on the density, I mean a tungsten (volframi, for us civilized folks) rod will have a rather big crater and can withstand breaking up as well. Of course, bringing one 5 meter, 20 cm diameter rod up takes up the full payload of a shuttle...

[Gorsameth]

Intelligence has really taken a turn for the worse when we take our idea of actual real life practical 'super weapons' from GI Joe.

[Kaleredar]

Now what to make of this...

I wouldn't put it totally past putin to actually want Biden as, it cannot be denied, that guy is so much more stable than Trump. At the same time I don't think this endorsement is so hot at this time.

Edit: the statements made by Trump that he would let russia do whatever they want can backfire for putin: "if Trump would allow it, then why isn't he doing it?" Might an ultranationalist reason. Putting him in a position where he has no other choice.

Russia doesn’t want a stable US. Especially one under Biden, who has consistently pushed for aide to Ukraine. This is some weird reverse psychology bullshit.

Besides all Biden has to say is “I don’t want Putin’s endorsement,” if he even acknowledges it. He’s not bound to the whole “ we have to hide our malicious intentions and don’t want to lose our malicious backers so we can’t actively decry the putinists/neonazis/kkk/y’allqaeda/alt-right or we’ll lose votes” that the GOP is.

[D Luniz]

Intelligence has really taken a turn for the worse when we take our idea of actual real life practical 'super weapons' from GI Joe.

Do not mock the awesome power of the Weather Dominator!!

[Jessicka]

Where theres a weapon, theres a DoD budget.

Which is to say, if we were weaponizing space, I suspect we would have developed vastly superior systems for reaching orbit faster, safer, and more often.

Look up the 70s 'Star Wars' program. The money got spent. And no, we haven't got better at putting stuff in space, if anything we've gone backwards because making progress from the Space Shuttle program was so prohibitively expensive. That was the peak. Two shuttles blew up in 30 years, now these days we're blowing up 1970s style ICBM launchers every other week to put stuff up there because its so much cheaper and easier to fail that often.

[Edge-]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ns-1234968893/

Russian President Vladimir Putin was apparently itching for a verbal wrestling match with Tucker Carlson when the former Fox News host interviewed him earlier this month. He was disappointed not to get one.

Speaking to Russian state TV anchor Pavel Zarubin earlier this week, Putin said that he “thought he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I wasn’t just prepared for this, I wanted it!”

The cucking of Tucker Carlson continues and it's hilarious. American conservatives continue to be incredibly useful idiots for Vlady.

[Sunseeker]

Look up the 70s 'Star Wars' program. The money got spent. And no, we haven't got better at putting stuff in space, if anything we've gone backwards because making progress from the Space Shuttle program was so prohibitively expensive. That was the peak. Two shuttles blew up in 30 years, now these days we're blowing up 1970s style ICBM launchers every other week to put stuff up there because its so much cheaper and easier to fail that often.

NASA is a separate budget from the DoD. This was done precisely to prevent the primary thrust of space-related development to be one of science, rather than one of war. This is also, unsurprisingly, why Republicans constantly cut its budget.

What we are doing now is entirely a result of a concerted effort NOT to weaponize space, and to some extent, a long-standing anti-intellectual movement.

"Star Wars" by George Lucas launched in 1977, "Star Wars" the military program, the "Space Defense Initiative" or "SDI" wasn't proposed until 1984, some 20 years AFTER the 1967 "Outer Space Treaty". The SDI largely didn't go anywhere because the technology simply wasn't there (as 3rd-party reports stated) and thus its budget was cut and it eventually folded. The idea further didn't go anywhere as the collapse of the USSR was already showing signs and of course, by 1991, it did.

So, quite frankly, no the money wasn't spent and there was no long-term military push to develop space-based weapons. It simply wasn't necessary.

I agree that we have regressed, and thats due to, as I mentioned: a strong anti-intellectual movement among conservatives against NASA, and secondly a general loss of interest in space by the American population. My point was that we most likely wouldn't have regressed had space development been pushed by the military, and NASA been part of the DoD.

[Kallisto]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ns-1234968893/



The cucking of Tucker Carlson continues and it's hilarious. American conservatives continue to be incredibly useful idiots for Vlady.

If he truly wanted a verbal sparring match I'm sure they could stop refusing interviews from CNN, BBC and other western news sources.

[Ulmita]

A new topic for you - a super secret supposed threat from supposedly Russia in supposedly space, just when the voting needs to happen about aid to Ukraine.
As per Jake Sullivan.

News @10: Claiming to be fighting with shovels and robbing washing machines to gather computer chips for its crumbling army, Russia is also accused of building an all-powerful space weapon and being able to invade all of Europe.

Something wrong with our propaganda machine... Someone or some need to get off the booze / weed

[Edge-]

News @10: Claiming to be fighting with shovels and robbing washing machines to gather computer chips for its crumbling army, Russia is also accused of building an all-powerful space weapon and being able to invade all of Europe.

Something wrong with our propaganda machine... Someone or some need to get off the booze / weed

https://apnews.com/article/russia-an...7188bc92dd6cde

No, they're just developing an anti-satellite weapon that's not operational. There's no real contradiction here in that they can develop advanced weapons programs using their increasingly scarce resources while those on the front are left to scavenge for supplies.

I mean, they're buying tons of "cheap" suicide drones from Iran for fucks sake. That's not exactly a great sign of strong supply chains and access to technology (which has largely been cut off). That doesn't mean they have nothing, but it means they have to be judicious with their supplies.

One only requires that they be capable of holding subtle or nuanced opinions/beliefs and capable of more than binary worldviews and thinking to understand this situation.

[Saradain]

News @10: Claiming to be fighting with shovels and robbing washing machines to gather computer chips for its crumbling army, Russia is also accused of building an all-powerful space weapon and being able to invade all of Europe.

Something wrong with our propaganda machine... Someone or some need to get off the booze / weed

A pity your russian propaganda machine was broken to begin with: Easo provided no sources (as usual), and the first one I can google...

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/14/p...eat/index.html

Within hours, the Republican speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, attempted to tamp down the imbroglio, telling reporters that “there is no cause for alarm” and indicating that he had known about the intelligence since at least January.

“We just want to assure everyone steady hands are at the wheel. We’re working on it and there’s no need for alarm,” Johnson said.

Care to provide a source where it is called a superweapon that enables the orcs to invade all of Europe? Or nah, the usual shitmongering as always?

Another: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...ned-rcna138848

The weapon isn’t yet operational

Why is it not operational if they can invade all of Europe with it? Is it...because of chip shortages?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...at-2024-02-14/

WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The United States has told Congress and allies in Europe about new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities that could pose an international threat, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
The new capabilities, related to Russian attempts to develop a space-based weapon, do not pose an urgent threat to the United States, the source said.

Wew lad, how many more do we need to post here to see that once again, you are posting bullshit while attempting to troll the thread?

[Ulmita]

A pity your russian propaganda machine was broken to begin with: Easo provided no sources (as usual), and the first one I can google...

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/14/p...eat/index.html



Care to provide a source where it is called a superweapon that enables the orcs to invade all of Europe? Or nah, the usual shitmongering as always?

I think you've misread me. We, as EUROPE and US, aka the master propagandists of the planet, are claiming that Russia will attack Europe / NATO, / Mars and other planets outside the solar system, after Ukraine. We also claim that they fight with shovels and microchips from washing machines and build advanced anti satellite stuff. HAHAHAHAHA