{off-topic} Feasibility of Space warfare

[ExoToa]

I wont pretend to know very much physics (or grammer for that matter)


While searching through the archives of this and other Orbiter forums I find that the idea of the simulation of space
combat is met with dissagrement and animosity.
I agree entirely with this notion, because Orbiter is a simulator that lends you free unrestricted access to the innard
workings of the solar system and beyond.

This however poses an important qeustion, what is the feasibility of space warfare in the reletivly near future.


The history of space warfare goes back to the 1960s when the Soviet Union began the Almaz project, a project
designed to give them the ability to do on-orbit inspections of satellites and destroy them if needed. The Almaz had
an on-board 23mm Nudelmann aircraft cannon. Salyut 3 conducted a successful test firing on a target satellite.
(Taken form a Wikipedia article)

So far ,those with easy access to orbit would be NASA(USA), ESA(Most of Europe) and RKA(Russia). out of these there
are many smaller agencys which have limited or somewhat more challenged access as opposed to the world powers
listed.

These three agencys have a aliied bond between each other that has never been broken down to hostilitys(Not
counting the Cold war tension between US and Russia) So Space combat would be a trivial concern in the long run.


So then for imaginary purposes i give you a question that i invite you the reader to draw a conclusion.

Lets speculate that our peaceful ownership of space is rudely intterupted when a terrorist group or worse, a powerful
nation launches a project to cause massive harm to us and the rest of the world.Thsi could be anything from a
Nuclear attack from orbit to something as a outlandish as forcing military domination of certain areas simply from
space.

My qeustion is what do you think Space Warefare in general will develop, How could something like this be kickstarted.





just a random though while browsing the forums

[StarLost]

Review the thread "Weapons in Orbiter" in this forum.

[Ghostrider]

StarLost wrote:
Review the thread "Weapons in Orbiter" in this forum.

Uhm, I think maybe the topic merits a separate thread. Weapons in Orbiter deals with weaponry and practical
aspects of space combat. This may be a thread about strategic/tactical approaches.

[StarLost]

Weapons in space, tactics and stratagems are all related.  Keep them all in one thread. Easier to go through.

[oli_chose123]

every time i wat to read in weapons in orbiter, i get lost, it could be time to start a celaner one, without castles and
self-biography...

[DocHoliday]

Ok. This one seems to be going in a clean direction. I'm going to close the old one then.. Agree the topic is slightly
different, but so what...

My personal opinion is, that space warfare will sadly again take on the shape it had back in the 50-60s.. Space launch
platforms and the like, becuase even today, we still have no outside enemy. We are perfectly happy to threaten
eachother and the illusive new enemy called the terrorists...

Space platforms, combined with sophisticated surveillance equipment and possibly advanced weaponry, but not
WMD. All kinds of counter-space systems, all kinds of stealth systems, etc... No big space vessels, in fact no space
army either.. Even on Earth there is a growing tendandy towards UAVs... So why risk sending people to space, where
therer is (currently) even more chance they get killed even on routine assignments...

That's what I think

[Ghostrider]

oli_chose123 wrote:
every time i wat to read in weapons in orbiter, i get lost, it could be time to start a celaner one, without castles and
self-biography...

And the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody ever expects that.

[Krytom]

You really do like Monty Python don't you. It is good isn't it.

[Atom]

Yup.

[ExoToa]

And what about the tactics of destroying and/or disabling said space platforms

[Krytom]

If somebody made a space platform with tiny little docking ports that the DGIII MMU could attach explosives to then
maybe that kind of mission could be possible.

[Ghostrider]

This in from SpaceDaily:

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-05e.html

And yes, I do like Monty Python. That's cultural stuff, like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Anyone wants to try and
make Frank'n Furter's castle in Orbiter?

[fliegenschwein]

While we're at it, how about an alternate sol.cfg with planet Transylvania? And a base called "Trans-sexual".

Oops, getting off topic.

Space warfare with ballistics, guided misiles and such would be quite tedious. Because you would always see your
enemy and his weapons coming from hundreds (if not Thousands) of kilometers away. It would involve alot of
manuvers, counter-manuvers... until someone runs out of fuel.

Full-scale war of any kind would need to be waaaaaaayyy in the future when inter-planetary travel becomes routine
and colonies have sprung up in new locations in the solar system with their own local interests. And even then, much
more time would be required for these colonies to build up the armies of storm troopers, fleets of battleships and
starfighters etc. For all of this to happen, many new exotic technologies would need to be developed such as new
means of propulsion and weaponry. And once you have come to this point, you are pretty far from the "focus on
realism" that Orbiter is all about.

More realistically, malicious acts  (such as by terrorists or rogue states) in space would be in the form of sabotage or
suicide missions. These actions could be as simple as docking with a space station and engaging and extended
retrograde burn, bringing it out of orbit. Or perhaps hacking into environmental controls to shut down life support
systems. Or even simply opening the airlock when no one is looking. All of this situations can easily be recreated with
the current addons available and a little imagination.

The truth is, the challenge of staying alive in space travel is great enough that we don't need war or terrorist acts to
kill us (our simulated selves). Mishaps and mistakes do that job just fine.

Thank you for reading my rant.

[Krytom]

Nah, the solar system is Transylvania and the planet is Trans-sexual.

Let this be the last post on this off topicness.

[Ghostrider]

OK. We'll (maybe) shift space-related funny stuff on another thread. :-)

In the meantime, can we simulate - realistically - a space intercept manoeuver such as what would be required by
THAAD? I mean, have an automated spacecraft intercept and destroy an incoming missile such as the Minuteman II
which is already available?

Just for starters, of course, but autonomous guidance is one of the features that space-related weaponry will have.

BTW, anyone read "Storming Intrepid" by Payne Harrison? A bit old, but it did have an intriguing space
sabotage/warfare scenario.

[reekchaa]

[Krytom]

Can anyone do that big ringy thingy for Orbiter, because it looks nice.
The atmospheric haze of that planet could be better though....

[DocHoliday]

Ghostrider wrote:
In the meantime, can we simulate - realistically - a space intercept manoeuver such as what would be required by
THAAD? I mean, have an automated spacecraft intercept and destroy an incoming missile such as the Minuteman II
which is already available?

Tough. One problem is, the intercept rocket must have a pretty high ISP, which isn't really a problem. The real
problem is to calculate the proper trajectory for an intercept. You'd probably need some kind of TransX, but
specialized for this task and it would have to be set up easily and quickly..  

BTW, anyone read "Storming Intrepid" by Payne Harrison? A bit old, but it did have an intriguing space
sabotage/warfare scenario.

Nope. But it does sound familiar..

[ControlledForce]

It'll all look like Elite:First Encounters,yep most definately

[DocHoliday]