Asri-unix.1008
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!JPM@SU-AI
Sat Mar 13 19:19:17 1982
That 3 meg weapon in Science
I'll have to read the article, but it sounds like a crock.  A nuclear
weapon is NOT very good at distributing energy throughout a wide area (ie
it wastes a lot of energy at ground zero), space is not a good medium for
the transmission of any left over energy in a manner that will deliver a
deadly dose far away (and 1000km to 20000km is FAR away), and the form
of energy in this particular place would be KE of high speed particles,
which seems to be very similar to cosmic rays and solar flares, which
any station would have to guard against anyway (and which is relatively
easy to guard against, as many SPS and Space Colony studies have made
clear).  They may be correct, but I have not been impressed with stories
in Science I have read in the past (ie whenever they talked about things
I knew about they were usually wrong in significant ways).  Anyone
interested in high energy atmospheric physics out there who could
crunch some rough numbers?

Jim





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