Why are there no space wars yet?

HI
i cant understand why there still isnt any kind of space warships. I mean take an orbitary station load it with like 10 Nuklear bombs (ok kinda modified to not burn in the atmosphere) and what do u have? A super weapon! Drop a nuke on any city u wish! Nothing to shoot u down nothing to prevent the hit. I am not speaking bout interstellar armadas but just orbitary warfare.
Isnt this the perfect weapon? Ofcourse to counter it u will need fast orbitary fighters to shoot down the stations and therefor orbitary fighter motherships!

Well we can begin numbers of essays about it from political to aline conspiracies, but the truth of the matter is the easiest explanation is the best answer, a) no one can afford it, b) there is no need for it and c) there is no way to fight it.

a) launching the Space shuttle cost around $200 mill per flight
b) why would you spend all that many when you can achieve those objectives with common planes
c) how man spacecraft exist as of this moment? you can count them with your fingers so how on earth are going to fight a battle without the battleships and the soldiers 'cause you can't get then there

If you put nuclear weapons into space then the whole world will immediatly do 2 things
1.) Hate you
2.) Do the same, or create a counter.

Either way, the end result is not one that is favorable.

Nuclear bombs arn't somthing that you can just drop on a nation and have no backlash. The world is a lot different today then it was back in WWII.

I'm fine with the weaponization of space...simply because I know its inevitable. But the weapons will probably be inert, and use their speed as the biggest asset.

read up on "Rods from God", its basically a weapon that you put in orbit, and fire a big projectile at a target, it hits within minutes, and completely destroys the target with its kinetic-energy, radiationless, and projectiles would be made from tungsten (a very hard metal), so it wouldn't dissinagrate during the firey re-entry of earth's atmosphere.

Heres what it would look like.

If your looking for A-bombs in space, there won't be any. Have you ever heard of the UN Space Treaty? One of the terms of the treaty is that no Nuclear weapons may be stored in or launched from outer space. It is point 4 of the treaty:

States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;

Here's the entire treaty for your reading pleasure:

UN Outer Space Treaty

I think a look at the UN Space Treaty about will answer all of your questions! After all these years, I'm still amazed how often people forget about Yahoo and Google when they want to find something.

Tim

Originally posted by naXaH
I mean take an orbitary station load it with like 10 Nuklear bombs (ok kinda modified to not burn in the atmosphere) and what do u have? A super weapon! Drop a nuke on any city u wish! Nothing to shoot u down nothing to prevent the hit. I am not speaking bout interstellar armadas but just orbitary warfare.
Isnt this the perfect weapon? Ofcourse to counter it u will need fast orbitary fighters to shoot down the stations and therefor orbitary fighter motherships!

3 things.

1. There are international laws prohibiting anyone from putting ANY weapon into space, these laws are particulary strongly backed by Russia, who has 8,000+ nukes let's not forget.

2. Nukes to jack all when exploded in space.

3. USA has "Non Terrestrial Officers" and ships which are non-existant in the navy, let's not forget that.

Well I believe that there is a simple reason... It is so expensive... and the same thing can be done from the earth too... So it would be waist of time... And if you would ahve a nuke in the space... it couldn't be protected in the same way as here...

too expensive? no way! If u look at the efficiancy u get for yer bucks its fantastic. International treaties is an other thing however e.g. China doesnt follow all the UN laws nor does USA (torture) so why not nukes in space?
Dont forget the first one to start it will have a huge advantage.
But i agree its very unlikely. And what about some madman with a billion dollars? If u actually own one of those space bombers with lets say 2-5 nukes its sufficiant for world control! I mean which gevernment would risk to get their capitol nuked?
Do u think its impossible to build a space port somewhere on a privat island in indian ocean, hire some russian scientists and build yer own spaceship i mean conventional way lke sending many rockets and build it up there? Totally top secret. With enough money would this be possible?
Or do u think someboy would detect the rocket starts? I mean who checks all those deserts and islands on the earth?

Originally posted by naXaH
HI
i cant understand why there still isnt any kind of space warships.

Only a few countries are space capable, and its dominated by the US. The US agreed, along with a lot of other countries, to not weaponize space, and to esepcially not put nukes in orbit. Remember skylab?

There are no weapons in space because there are no rivalries or competition over resources in space. Once there is, then there will be weapons.

Originally posted by naXaH
Dont forget the first one to start it will have a huge advantage.

The US owns outer-space. Its as if the rest of the world is lashing logs together to make rafts and the US has Frigates and Transport ships.

And what about some madman with a billion dollars?

I'd think any attempt would be detected in launch and might be shot down then. If not, then missiles could hit anythign in orbit.

If u actually own one of those space bombers with lets say 2-5 nukes its sufficiant for world control!

Apparently you are unaware that Dr. No was defeated by Agent Double-O 7 years ago.

Unless......he was never really defeated????

Do u think its impossible to build a space port somewhere on a privat island in indian ocean, hire some russian scientists and build yer own spaceship i mean conventional way lke sending many rockets and build it up there?

I think any base would be detected, along with the powerplants and factories to make the nuke material.

I mean who checks all those deserts and islands on the earth?

The US, with their fleet of space satellites.

I'd think that, given that the US plainly agreed to not put any weapons in space, that it has some sort of system to destroy something in space, like the 'Rods' idea. Maybe some older satellites that are set up or could quickyl be set up to swing one of themselves into another satellite/ship/station and destroy it.

Originally posted by Manincloak

1. There are international laws prohibiting anyone from putting ANY weapon into space, these laws are particulary strongly backed by Russia, who has 8,000+ nukes let's not forget.

Oh, what is it? Isnt it Nudelman recoinless machine gun in the left down corner of the picutre in this russian Almaz space station???? And this is only one of dozens examples (that I know about, the real number is apparently bigger). The paper about real space based weapons that I wrote had 63 pages. You are so childish when you think that when is something prohibited, than nobody will do it....

Actually, there are treaties banning Nuclear weapons in space they don't however ban all weapons.
I think lasers and projectiles that use kinetic energy (Rods from God) will be the main type of weapons in space in the near term. Also, I think some anti satellite weapons are already up in space we just don't know about them yet, do you think NASA really launches weather satellites?

[edit on 12-12-2005 by WestPoint23]

Why no space wars yet? The worlds leaders are having a hardtime trying to find any profit in it.

Westpooint
do you think NASA really launches weather satellites?

yeah.

Do you think the space images of the Hurricanes come from space weapons?

I'm sure there are anti-satellite weapons in space, but the building and launching is all AF, not Nasa.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Actually, there are treaties banning Nuclear weapons in space they don't however ban all weapons.

Your quite right only WMDs are banned under the space treaty. Guns, lasers, "Rods from god", EMP weapons, would all be allowed under the treaty.

The Moon is another story and they state very clearly "all" weapons are banned from the moon.

Do you think the space images of the Hurricanes come from space weapons?

I'm sure there are anti-satellite weapons in space, but the building and launching is all AF, not Nasa.

In most cases you would be right, however, if the USAF wants to be low key they may ask NASA to lauch something for them.

Rods from God RULE!

The reason there are no space wars is because there are only a hand full of nations that can put an object in space, much less one that would be a strategically, tactically, and/or cost effective.

In short, the US is the only one that could afford to have a "space force" in adition to an airforce. And even we are in the most crude stages of this (as far as we know). Maybe China and Russia could put some weapons up there too. But again, Russia is having funding problems for it's conventional military as it is, and China is just now beggining to upgrade it's weapons so they are not obsolete. Better to invest their money in proven systems then potentionally wasting tens or even hundreds of billions on space weapons that don't really help them.

Because only America can afford to have a space war. Not bragging or anything, just being 100% honest.