Jason’s Random Thoughts

There has been some talk over the last few years to put weapons platforms into orbit for use as a nation’s defense against missiles. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan wanted to do this with this “Star Wars” program (a.k.a. the Strategic Defense Initiative), and Japan’s opposition party has even gone so far as to approve the use of Earth’s atmosphere for defense purposes. But why would any nation want to put missiles or other non-nuclear weaponry into orbit?

To protect our satellites, of course.

No Laughing Matter

Satellites play a key role in our daily lives, from delivering TV signals, internet, phone calls, and GPS coordinates, to performing reconnaissance on the Earth or extra-terrestrial bodies. Going back to a time without these incredibly versatile devices would be next to impossible at this stage, as it would mean telecommunications companies would need to lay hundreds of millions of kilometers of fiber optic cable in an attempt to keep up with demand for information.

Both the U.S. and China have proven without a doubt that destroying an orbiting satellite is as simple as calculating when it will be overhead, and sending a rocket to intercept the object. The potential for warring nations to knock out a satellite has become so great, that many nations actually conduct space war games and tests of how a military unit would operate should their lines of communication become compromised in the heat of battle.

Thanks to the 1967 Space Treaty, placing nuclear-based weapons in orbit has been banned, but it doesn’t explicitly stop countries from putting other effective military devices on standby high above the clouds. This has been a hot topic of debate ever since Sputnik, the very first satellite, made it to orbit on October 4th, 1957.

In all reality, however, defending a nation with an orbital platform would be insanely difficult to accomplish. Objects, such as the International Space Station, flying in the upper atmosphere take approximately 90 minutes to complete a single orbit. Considering how most missile threats to nations require less than 90 minutes to reach their destination, this would mean that several dozen to several hundred of these weapons bases would be needed to ensure an enemy missile could be destroyed in time.

The Money’s No Longer There

According to this ancient Industry Insights page, there were approximately 800 satellites in orbit of the Earth at the start of the 21st century. This number has certainly changed over the years as some have been decommissioned and sent plummeting through the atmosphere to burn up safely, while others have been added to the already crowded regions of Low-Earth Orbit, High-Earth Orbit, and Geosynchronous orbits somewhere inbetween. Half of these are owned and operated by American companies or their government. So with the amount of debris and other objects we already have surrounding the Earth’s gravitational sweet-spot, it would be difficult to add several hundred weapons platforms. On top of this, the costs of putting an orbiting system to use would be prohibitively expensive when compared to the ground-based alternatives.

Of course, if one nation were to start sending dozens or hundreds of weapons bases into space, then others would feel the need to balance the power. With military tensions already high in some nations, we wouldn’t want anyone to consider doing anything they might later regret with such a superior destructive delivery system.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

While some political leaders and military strong-men try to motivate us by painting a bleak picture and warning us that our communications satellites are largely undefended from terrorist attacks, the truth of the matter is that there have been no attempts by any nation to willingly take down an enemy satellite. This, of course, could change in the blink of an eye, but space has been one of the few areas in the universe where man has not yet taken their wars. Nations have an unsaid understanding that, because of our dependence on these technological wonders, there will not be an all-out attack on a nations orbital assets.

This isn’t to say that rogue nations or incredibly well funded and connected terrorist groups couldn’t get their hands on a weapon capable of taking out an orbiting satellite, but the odds of such an occurrence are quite low. That said, if they did have something that could take out a critical communications relay, our best chance of destroying it would be from a ground-based station.

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