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From: REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: space station
Message-ID: <17648@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Mar-84 18:05:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.17648
Posted: Sat Mar 17 18:05:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Mar-84 01:05:23 EST
Lines: 33

From:  Robert Elton Maas 

    Date: 13 Mar 84 16:46:46-PST (Tue)
    From:ihnp4!houxm!hogpc!houti!ariel!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!lanl-a!jlg@Ucb-Vax
    Why would the pentagon regard a space station as vulnerable?  It
    really isn't. There aren't weapon systems designed to attack deep
    space objects (even satellite killers only operate in LEO).
The initial space statin WOULD be in LEO, so I don't understand the
relevance between your statement about deep space objects and the
point you're making. Remember, we're not talking about L-5 colonies
here, or even geosynchronous orbit. We're talking about a station that
is built by people on STS flights and regularily serviced by STS.
Remember STS is restricted to LEO, a few hundred miles from the
surface of the Earth.

The other points you raise about the space station being physically
more robust, are valid.  Many methods of knocking out ICBMs depend on
the very thin skin of the ICBM, so thin if you drop a wrench from a
hundred feet above it and it hits the ICBM just right the ICBM
promptly gets a fuel leak followed by explosion. A high speed
projectile (bullet, meteor, fragment of anything at orbigal speeds) or
small explosive would surely kill an ICBM (if the ICBM didn't explode
directly, it'd burn up on reenty due to the pucture in its skin). By
comparison, a solid metal space-station shell might puncture from such
a projectile but not undergo an explosion, and since it doesn't plan
to reenter the atmosphere the puncture would not be fatal.

As for heavy radiation shielding, I think that applies only to later
space stations/colonies such as L-5 et al based on massive amounts of
lunar materials available at low cost. The first space station would
be much more robust than an ICBM, but still somewhat vulnerable if
somebody really wanted to commit an act of war. (At last that's my
personal assessment.)