It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: andy06shake
We aren't allowed WMDs in orbit. We're allowed weapons in orbit. But Rods From God was never going to be a thing. They're not accurate, and they're about the equivalent of a 2000 lb bunker buster at impact. Their only advantage is reaction time. Getting them to orbit requires a heavy lift rocket, or something like the shuttle, and loading them would require an extremely risky space walk once they were fired, if they could get them up there to begin with.
originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: andy06shake
They need to reach near relativistic speeds to do the damage, dropping them relying on gravity alone wouldn't do it.
Might ruin your day, though?
originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Boomer1947
A recent Chinese (yes I know) study shows that they aren't nearly as effective as claimed in sci-fi. They hit hard, but even against concrete, they don't penetrate well. There's very little difference between a medium and high speed impact too. At 1.2 km/s the maximum penetration depth is 80x the diameter of the rod. So a 1 foot diameter rod would penetrate roughly 80 feet of material. Increasing that speed to hypersonic levels doesn't increase the penetration significantly. A USAF study showed that terminal velocity of the rod would be somewhere around Mach 10, and that a conventional bomb of similar weight provides similar destructive power.