Hey Dale,
Since the annoucement today, I've been wondering
similar questions. But mine have more just simply to
do with orbital mechanics in general: for sake of
simplicity, if the satellite was a pure sphere of much
smaller ball bearings (smaller spheres) and it
uniformly exploded in all directions *at the moment of
entry interface*, what would happen to all the
"fragments"? Could any survive the next rev? Perhaps
the half shot downwards would not survive (burn up
immediately) and those shot opposite the velocity
vector would re-enter before their next rev was over
(right?). But what of those that are aligned with the
velocity vector or the earth radial vector? The big
question: could some particles achieve a *higher*
(sustaining) orbit from point of explosion??? Or would
all particles have their perigee or apogee pinned to
the altitude of explosion and thereby decay soon?
Regards,
Jeff Umbarger
Plano, TX USA
--- Dale Ireland <direland@drdale.com> wrote:
> If the satellite is hit wouldn't it actually reenter
> sooner as small high
> drag pieces would come down faster. It wouldn't
> launch many fragments into
> higher orbits would it?
>
> If the satellite has a reactor that is designed to
> survive reentry could it
> survive a missile hit? If so could the heavy
> reactor, now separated from the
> rest of the craft be identifiable by its drag
> characteristics in orbit and
> subject to a second specific missile hit?
>
> I am just assuming that the real reason for shooting
> it down is to destroy
> the high security parts and also avoid the
> embarrassment of having a
> plutonium reactor drop on an unfriendly country,...
> like the Netherlands.
>
> Dale
>
>
>
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