Why are ICBMs ballistic?

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: MotF Bane

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Itchrelief
How much energy does it take to change a satellite's orbit? I'm guessing it's not chump change if you want to do it quickly. You'd have to keep a whole fleet of them in orbit (where they can all be tracked anyways) to have a good probability of having one near where you want to strike at the time you want to launch it.

Then what happens when its shelf-life is past its sell-by date? I'm sure everyone will be REALLY happy when you start having to de-orbiting these things after they get so old they aren't reliable anymore.

That's an excellent point. Go to NASA's site and see how often the ISS is going to be nearly directly overhead in your location.

Hmm... when I was in fifth grade, the principal announced ISS would be overhead that night. It ended up being a tiny bright speck visible for about 5 minutes.

That's the point. He didn't announce that 2 or 3 times a week. "Okay, Russia has launched it's ICBM's at us. Time to retalliate. How long until one of our missiles is heading toward Moscow?" "About 30 more orbits, sir, and it'll be close enough." "Good."

But one obviously wouldn't rely on a single weapon. There would be many tens of such orbital stations with orbits designed that one will be ready to go quite quickly.

 

[Farang]

Wouldn't you go ballistic if you had a freaking nuke attached to you?

 

[sandorski]

If I had fire coming out my ass, I'd go Ballistic too.:|