The Militarization of Near Space?

a reply to: Psynic

Whatever the reason the American company dumped its orbital Solar Collector, the Japanese are now working on the same thing:

humansarefree.com...
(April 2014) JAXA PLANS TO PUT "SOLAR POWER STATIONS" IN ORBIT, BEAM SOLAR ENERGY DOWN TO EARTH
They are aiming for a Space Solar Power System (SSPS) by 2030, using an array of mirrors in geostationary orbit for capture. And then transmit the solar energy to ground-based power plants via microwaves or laser beams.

I still say it could be used as a "Stealth Orbital Weapon"...

a reply to: MKMoniker

My understanding was that the area between the Earth and the Moon was referred to as "Trans-Lunar Space".

"Near Space" was, at least until a few years ago, that portion of the Earth's atmosphere above 100,00FT and below approximately 361,000FT, roughly the "bottom edge" of low earth orbital space.

And, if rumors are to be believed, there are some very Interesting vehicles flying/floating around at those altitudes.

The Russians already have placed weapons in space aboard their Salyut station back in the mid 70's:

The Salyut 3, although called a "civilian" station, was equipped with a "self-defence" gun which had been designed for use aboard the station, and whose design is attributed to Nudelman.[1] Some accounts claim the station was equipped with a Nudelman-Rikhter "Vulkan" gun, which was a variant of the 23 mm Nudelmann aircraft cannon, or possibly a Nudelmann NR-30 30 mm gun.[11] Later Russian sources indicate that the gun was the virtually unknown (in the West) Rikhter R-23.[12] These claims have reportedly been verified by Pavel Popovich, who had visited the station in orbit, as commander of Soyuz 14.[11] Due to potential shaking of the station, in-orbit tests of the weapon with cosmonauts in the station were ruled out.[1] The gun was fixed to the station in such a way that the only way to aim would have been to change the orientation of the entire station.[1

Wikipedia

The military isn't directly arming space, rather they're developing satellite technologies to counter, disrupt, protect, and evade other satellites. There's seems to be some research into what I can only term "passive aggressive" low-Earth orbit technologies. What I'm saying is -- no outright arming of space.

a reply to: Bhadhidar

Thanks for your post.

I agree, and some of the most sophisticated "observation" hardware going up are joint projects with the U.S. and Russia:

www.russianspaceweb.com...
RUSSIAN'S SPEKTR-RG
Apparently unaffected by their last Proton Rocket that was destroyed after launch, these German and Russian orbital telescopes are set to start launching in July-October 2015.

originally posted by: MKMoniker
a reply to: cavtrooper7

Thanks for your post. And I think you are correct ...

www.youtube.com...
(Nov. 2014) RUSSIAN 'KILLER SATELLITE' MYSTERY SPARKS 'ORBITAL WEAPON' SPECULATION

www.cbsnews.com...
(July 2014) RECENT PLANE CRASHES MAY HAVE BEEN SHOT FROM ABOVE?
Several were known to be flying above 20,000 feet, which is above the range of ground-based missiles.

The first video clearly explains the Russian mission was an experiment to deal with space debris, you know the kind of objects that could instantly put an end to the ISS.

And the second is the standard MSM report on MH17, which makes no mention of satellite weapons, whatsoever.

I have yet to see evidence for the need, advantages, or existence of a space based weapons system, while war in space can be more effectively conducted by scrambling an F35 from ANYWHERE in the world and launching a missile at a satellite?

Not nearly as exciting as the "Stealth Orbital Weapon" you're picturing, but a lot more efficient.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Thanks for your post. But I DO believe there are already weapons platforms in orbit - possibly disguised as primarily scientific packages.

Check my last post for what the Germans and Russians will start launching this year.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
The Russians already have placed weapons in space aboard their Salyut station back in the mid 70's:

The Salyut 3, although called a "civilian" station, was equipped with a "self-defence" gun which had been designed for use aboard the station, and whose design is attributed to Nudelman.[1] Some accounts claim the station was equipped with a Nudelman-Rikhter "Vulkan" gun, which was a variant of the 23 mm Nudelmann aircraft cannon, or possibly a Nudelmann NR-30 30 mm gun.[11] Later Russian sources indicate that the gun was the virtually unknown (in the West) Rikhter R-23.[12] These claims have reportedly been verified by Pavel Popovich, who had visited the station in orbit, as commander of Soyuz 14.[11] Due to potential shaking of the station, in-orbit tests of the weapon with cosmonauts in the station were ruled out.[1] The gun was fixed to the station in such a way that the only way to aim would have been to change the orientation of the entire station.[1

Wikipedia

The military isn't directly arming space, rather they're developing satellite technologies to counter, disrupt, protect, and evade other satellites. There's seems to be some research into what I can only term "passive aggressive" low-Earth orbit technologies. What I'm saying is -- no outright arming of space.

So the Russians allegedly put a cannon on Salyut back in the 70's, but didn't dare actually firing it.

I guess not. LOL

a reply to: MKMoniker

Technically, merely throwing a hammer from orbit is a space weapon so yeah, of course we have always had the potential to make war from space. The treaties have been only about nuclear weapons which, I presume, we also have.

a reply to: Psynic

An effective LEO "battlefield" would need multiple types of aircraft and weaponry, and possibly "stealth weaponry" in fixed-orbit satellites.

www.ucsusa.org...
UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA "SATELLITE DATABASE"
They count about 1,000 operational orbiting satellites - and over 500 are American. About half of these are Government and Military. What portion of these are - or can be - weaponized is anyone's guess.

And some weaponry performs better in Space than on Earth:

www.space.com...
(2013) TOP TEN SPACE WEAPONS
DARPA is working on "shooting a stream of molten metal at incredible speed." But everyone's watching China, with their "parasitic micro-satellites."

www.nationaldefensemagazine.org...
(July 2014) NEW CHINESE THREATS TO U.S. SPACE SYSTEMS WORRY OFFICIALS
China's anti-satellite program could both destroy satellite targets, AND create a massive debris field to endanger other satellites - just like their 2007 test did.

originally posted by: MKMoniker
a reply to: MystikMushroom

But I DO believe.....

That is evident.

Unfortunately, you haven't got a shred of actual evidence.

MystikMushroom is right.

We aren't "arming" space per se, but developing ways to reduce the vulnerability of our "communications" satellites.

This same vulnerability is why we don't have orbiting weapons systems. They are indefensible.

It don't matter who's satellite has been fragged, the debris would become a perpetual orbiting shotgun blast that'll sweep everything out of the sky within hours.

Should it come to a shooting war, it will be a very brief one.

In orbit there's nowhere to hide.

a reply to: MKMoniker

Imagine a small EKV

The wonders of KINETIC energy.

www.raytheon.com...

Check the links to the right of the page provided.

a reply to: TucsonOne

Thanks. Excellent info!

(And Raytheon was founded by Vanniver Bush - no relation to the Georges or Jeb - who was one of the original members of Majestic 12. Raytheon gets a lot of "choice" defense contracts, not the biggest or most, that seems to address all kinds of "threats.")

www.bga-aeroweb.com...
TOP NASA CONTRACTORS FOR 2014
Raytheon is 7th in contracts awarded thru NASA last year.

news.clearancejobs.com...
(Dec. 2014) RAYTHEON AWARDED MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY "MICROWAVE MODULES" CONTRACT

news.clearancejobs.com...
(Nov. 2014) RAYTHEON AWARDED "ELECTRONIC WARFARE PLANNING" CONTRACT

news.clearancejobs.com...
(Oct. 2014) RAYTHEON AWARDED THREE-DIMENSIONAL EXPEDITIONARY LONG-RANGE RADAR CONTRACT

a reply to: Psynic

It's all conspiracy theories

Project THOR
EXCALIBUR

STARWARS tech we DID spend money on but saw NOTHING that sort of info that has been floating around for decades.
No one inside would ever disclose a "LAST USE" device at all.

a reply to: Psynic

OR, it is a good cover that would explain away the errant data...

a reply to: cavtrooper7

This is a link from within my link above.

raytheon.mediaroom.com...

Scroll down the page to: About the EKV

Read the last bullet point in that section for the answer.

originally posted by: TucsonOne
a reply to: MKMoniker

Imagine a small EKV

The wonders of KINETIC energy.

www.raytheon.com...

Check the links to the right of the page provided.

An EKV is still a ground launched missile.

Yes I can imagine a small one.

The orbiting portion of the EKV system is a navigation satellite.

No laws against that.

You do have me wondering whether rail guns would be able to reach satellites?

a reply to: Psynic
Follow my last posted link please.

Last bullet point in the : About the EKV

Edit: its not a waiting ground system

I very much think we a have neutral partical beam weapns in orbit or AT LEAST rod's from god systems.

a reply to: cavtrooper7

Star for your intuition cavtrooper.

a reply to: MKMoniker

There is no TR3B as stated here many many many times by people here in the know.

Launching Satellites that now do not have to be so large, do to tech making them smaller from a Scream Eagle is a dam good idea and a bazillion times cheaper! They used the F-15 to launch Sat killing missiles in a test many years ago.

The next war wont be in space but that will be the next great fairytale excuse to put weapons in space to feed the defense industry.