Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site orca.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!tektronix!orca!brucec
From: brucec@orca.UUCP (Bruce Cohen)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: space station killing
Message-ID: <709@orca.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 25-Mar-84 00:39:22 EST
Article-I.D.: orca.709
Posted: Sun Mar 25 00:39:22 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Mar-84 01:13:02 EST
References: <152@hocse.UUCP>, <3392@lanl-a.UUCP> <3646@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 17

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Thank you, Kieran Carroll, for setting the record straight about how easy it
is to kill a space station.  I was going to make the same points, and you
have saved my fingers some work.  One point I would like to add is that the
simplest satellite killer of all, good against space stations too, is a few
kilos of BBs, put into a nearly identical orbit to the target,
but with the opposite rotational sense.  Total impact velocity nearly twice
orbital velocity (>15 KPS total for LEO) means a lot of kinetic energy.  So
it costs a little more deltaV to get it into orbit because you have the
Earth's rotation bucking instead of aiding you.  You can still carry a lot
of BBs on something the size of a Thor-Delta.

				Bruce Cohen
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