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To protect its satellites, France outlines ambitious space-weapons program
After French President Emmanuel Macron called for a space high command to protect his nation's satellites earlier this month, military officials on Thursday released their plans in more detail.
As reported in the French financial newspaper Les Echos, the French Defense Minister, Florence Parly, outlined a new space weapons program that would allow the country to move from space surveillance to the active protection of its satellites.
"France is not embarking on a space arms race," Parly said, according to the publication. However, the projects outlined Thursday by French officials include swarms of nano-satellites that would patrol a few kilometers around French satellites, a ground-based laser system to blind snooping satellites, and perhaps even machine guns on board some satellites.
Parly said one of the country's biggest challenges would be to develop these capabilities with about one-tenth of the budget that the US spends on civil and defense space activities.
Troupes de espace marine.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @08:56PM (2 children)
The last time I checked launching 10-20 grams of lead or other dense material at roughly 1000 meters per second accelerated the launch platform in the opposite direction.
Who's calculating the new orbit?
With every single shot you will need to calculate the new orbit of the launch platform. That's quite an overhead!
I don't think Monsieur Macron understands orbital mechanics any more than Mister Trump does.
"Macron thinks orbital mechanics are astronauts with monkey wrenches"
~childo
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @10:39PM
A ton of coarse sand launched into an elliptical polar orbit will put this space race to an end.
For good.
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Saturday July 27 2019, @12:31AM
At first glance, this did seem to be a problem but upon further thought, I do not see it being anything near an insurmountable one.
1.) Just shoot an object of equivalent kinetic energy in the opposite direction and it will cancel out; no recalculation needed.
2.) Why assume that your "kill vehicle" is traveling at a matched speed and direction to the target? If you have a [near] intercept path coming from the opposite direction, you need only gently release a projectile so that it parallels your course and the projectile impacts the target. Only smallest of delta-V change in your pursuing vehicle.
3.) Why is recalculating an orbit such a big deal? Geostationary satellites are regularly released in a geostationary *transfer* orbit and it is up to the satellite (bird) to propel itself to its intended altitude and velocity. Further, birds are occasionally moved to a different orbit to take over for one that failed. Though not something I'd like to do with pencil and paper, it is done quite regularly and not that hard a calculation to do. Certainly not enough of a difficulty to be a blocking issue.
Thanks for the opportunity to do a little mental gymnastics!
Wit is intellect, dancing.