Rods From God Space Weapon

Is there any PDF file that I can I download detailing this military space weapon project?
Do any of you know the official "Project" name for this type of space weapon?

Did this Space weapon was developed by the US Air Force or by DARPA?

www.popsci.com...

Thanks

reply to post by darpa999


If it's a military space weapon, do you really think it's available to the public? Especially considering the treaty that prohibits space-based attacks due to the inevitable repercussions of such an assault?

Originally posted by darpa999
Is there any PDF file that I can I download detailing this military space weapon project?
Do any of you know the official "Project" name for this type of space weapon?

Did this Space weapon was developed by the US Air Force or by DARPA?

www.popsci.com...

Thanks

Hi there darpa999,

You might want to try asking the writer of that article in Popular Science (Eric Adams)?
Send them an email at: [email protected]

Cheers and good luck!

reply to post by darpa999


The article from 2004 states that the "rods from god" platform if ever developed is at least 15 years away from deployment and DARPA is not mentioned but the Air Force is mentioned as the developer. It sounds like a worth while project but an expensive one that is not likely to see the light of day any time soon considering the many budget woes we are fighting on the ground. A much cheaper for of getting this equipment into orbit must be developed before it would be practical according to the article...but the recent private launches may bring a weapon like this back to the front burner...lets hope not as we already have enough weapons of destruction in our arsenal.

Those things are probably up there, I would say the US, Russia, and China have them for sure. The treaty they made many years ago was specific so varying from that would be easy. Nuclear weapons are not allowed but we have small nuclear weapons that are not considered nuclear by their specific design. Nuclear tipped missiles or bunker busters are allowed. I'm sure that this kind of stuff is incorporated in a defense shield type of satellite. They could also be used to target a specific target. There are ways to skirt treaties incorporated into these treaties. After all, they are written by Lawyers, would you think that it would be any other way?

It appears that the new GI Joe movie is going to have a similar weapon being taken over by the bad guys. looks like a great movie!

Originally posted by darpa999
Is there any PDF file that I can I download detailing this military space weapon project?
Do any of you know the official "Project" name for this type of space weapon?

Did this Space weapon was developed by the US Air Force or by DARPA?

www.popsci.com...

Thanks

This "weapon" was most prominently "developed" by science fiction writers Larry Niven & Jerry Pournell who caught the interest of (dumb) Reagan-era military personnel.

Other than that it exists only on paper. It's a ridiculously impractical idea, because it would be about as destructive as a large conventional bomb, but cost a thousand times more. Also, while re-entering it would not have the advantages of modern guided weapons of being able to use sensors & GPS for accuracy.

In practice, a B-2 with a large number of individually targetable smart munitions is more militarily successful.

reply to post by darpa999


You may enjoy reading Slayers69 thread Star Wars: It has begun...,

Love and harmony
Whateva

I think a better choice for the weapon design would be a titanium casing with a tungsten tip for a penetrator and DU filling the core with a heat tile tip for reentry that is spun boron nitride glass mat. This would be survivable from a space launch and bring a lot of kinetic energy to bear on the target.

reply to post by mbkennel

This "weapon" was most prominently "developed" by science fiction writers Larry Niven & Jerry Pournell who caught the interest of (dumb) Reagan-era military personnel.

From their book "Footfall".

The premise being that a rod of iron dropped from space would have sufficient energy to penetrate even the hardest armor. In their novel the aliens destroy a main battle tank battalion with a few dozen iron rods released from on high to fall "dumbly" to their targets. In theory a good postulation, kind of hard to work out the details.

Considering that a tank either had to sit still or move in a straight line so that the ballistic trajectory would carry the "weapon" to its target.

But also considering the book was a work of science fiction. The elephant aliens who conquered their downed enemies by placing a foot on the chest of a downed opponent in order to establish dominance used primarily weapons of a kinetic nature, i.e., rocks dropped from space on cities, dams and power plants.

I guess the smartest way for an alien to conquer a world is to sit back and throw stuff. We do it too. Kinetic energy penetrators are the rave.

Modern arrows...

Originally posted by darpa999
Is there any PDF file that I can I download detailing this military space weapon project?
Do any of you know the official "Project" name for this type of space weapon?

Did this Space weapon was developed by the US Air Force or by DARPA?

www.popsci.com...

Thanks

Something similar in concept that could very well have space-based capability is Metal Storm:


Metal Storm Wiki

Metal Storm uses the concept of superposed load; multiple projectiles loaded nose to tail in a single gun barrel with propellant packed between them. The Roman candle, a traditional firework design, employs the same basic concept, however, the propellant continues to burn in the Roman candle's barrel, igniting the charge behind the subsequent projectile. The process is repeated by each charge in turn, ensuring that all projectiles in the barrel are discharged sequentially from the single ignition. Various methods of separately firing each propellant package behind stacked projectiles have been proposed which would allow a "single shot" capability more suitable to firearms

another longer video from Future Weapons:


It doesn't need to be Manned. It can be a completely unmanned platform.

Tungsten rods from space...and Warren Buffet just bought a Tungsten mine (hmmmmm).

It was originally called Project Thor.

It started in 2003. Project Thor was a small research project funded by the United States Air Force who were studying the feasibility of using kinetic energy weapons rather than conventional ordnance to bombard a target.

The idea was to use a 20-foot long and 1-foot thick tungsten rod and launch it at a target. Once it entered the atmosphere, it would reach a speed of about Mach 10 and the kinetic energy would do insane amounts of damage. Tungsten was to be used because it could survive the high heat of friction.

The whole reason something like this was ever considered is because it falls within a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty. The terms of the treaty were that no signatory countries would deploy orbital weapons of mass destruction. However, a weapon like this would be considered a conventional weapon.

I have heard of a posable enhancement to the rods from god. by filling a hollow area in the tungsten rod with lithium deuteride there is a posable chance that you would have a non nuclear hydrogen bomb.with little radiation.

This could make a enhanced 5 foot by 4 inch rod equal to 30 foot by 8 inch rod from god.

Putting a 5 foot by 4 inch GPS guided enhanced tungsten rod on a missile would be far easier then trying to launch a 30 foot by 8 inch tungsten rod that would weigh may tons.

Just a idea of what a enhanced rod from god could be like
www.foxnews.com...

Originally posted by allenidaho
The whole reason something like this was ever considered is because it falls within a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty. The terms of the treaty were that no signatory countries would deploy orbital weapons of mass destruction. However, a weapon like this would be considered a conventional weapon.

I thought the advantage of this weapon is that it would be impossible to intercept, due to its great speed and energy.

I can barely see how its advantages would outweigh the cost of raising it into space.

Correct. Virtually impossible to intercept or protect against. But as conventional missiles are much cheaper to use and replace, this type of weapon may never see the light of day.

I dont have the recent Russian meteor video but the video i saw, posted here, looked like a rod got it form behind.

So, we have a X-37 orbiting- with a 7'x4' payload bay and nobody thinks we have a stash of rods in there?

Its exactly what they've been looking for- a way to get a weapon delivered anywhere in the world in an hour. You don't have to carry a lot of them- the X-37 doesn't have a problem landing to reup and doesn't have to power it into space anyway- let a Delta II handle that.

The money to get it into space is already spent- they WILL have that little orbiter up as much as they can, might as well bring along a toy. GPS and software being what they are, its seems a matter of relative ease to get Thor to work- I bet the challenge is in the material science and not the aerodynamics. This is a weapon that is used as a complete surprise and only for dire situations.

You don't hit a tank with Thor, you take out the leader of a country,an aircraft carrier or a fortified base with it, maybe in order to stop (or start) a war.

Rods from god are a WMD used by the US in the game End War in the game used in place of

Nuclear weapons In the real world wouldn't they be seen as WMD

reply to post by springtime


No they wouldn't be considered a WMD because the area of effect is fairly small. Whereas a chemical, nuclear or biological weapon will affect a much larger area.