REPORTS that Russia could be developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon have sparked concern among space experts.
Nuclear space weapon expert Dr Michael Mulvihill recently revealed his own concerns in a piece for The Conversation.
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The expert from Teesside University explained in his article that “a nuclear attack on space infrastructure would also indiscriminately affect life on Earth.”
He added that this “would have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable nations in the global south.”
This is because these nations rely the most on space systems for things like food security and water supply management.
Such space systems are also used to provide internet access, an example of this being Elon Musk’s Starlink network.
Dr Mulvihill warned that a nuclear space attack would also risk retaliation and an escalation towards nuclear war.
The expert is calling for the United Nations to reaffirm a 50-year international commitment.
This commitment is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST).
Both the US and Japan are said to be calling for this to be reaffirmed by the UN security council.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the country does not intend to violate the OST.
Russia is one of the 114 nations that supports the treaty already.
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The idea of a nuclear anti-satellite weapon isn’t new though.
Rumors and reports of these weapons have been cropping up since Cold War in the 1960s.
With regards to the rumored weapon that Russia is said to be making, The White House claims it is not operational.
It’s also not said to pose an immediate threat to humanity.
Terrifying space weapons of the future
Here are three of the scariest…
Rods from God
- A strange but utterly terrifying weapon has been dubbed “rods from the God” and is based on the concept of creating man-made meteorites that can be guided towards the enemy.
- Instead of using rocks rods the size of telephone poles are deployed.
- These would be made out of tungsten — a rare metal that can stand the intense heat generated by entering Earth’s atmosphere.
- One satellite fires the rods towards the Earth’s atmosphere while the other steers them to a target on the ground.
- Reaching speeds of 7000mph they hit the ground with the force of a small nuclear weapon — but crucially creating no radiation fall out.
- As bizarre as it sounds, a US Congressional report recently revealed the military has been pushing ahead with the kinetic space weapons.
Molten metal cannons
- This intriguing idea is being developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
- It is called the Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition or MAHEM.
- This game changing rail-gun can fire a jet of molten metal, hurled through space at several hundred miles per second by the most powerful electromagnets ever built.
- The molten metal can then morph into an aerodynamic slug during flight and pierce through another spacecraft or satellite and a munition explodes inside.
Space force ships
- Already the United States is powering head with its spacecraft, although China is busy developing one of their own.
- The top secret American XS-1 under development by DARPA.
- It can travel ten times the speed of sound and launch missiles.
- Meanwhile an unmanned craft is currently being developed in the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre in Mianyang, Sichuan province, which is also known as Base 29.
