as if the United States creating a space-specific branch of the military would somehow wreck the utopian peace our civilization has managed in the space above our heads there has been a substantial increase in accusations about the militarization of space in recent years the reality is that since the launch of Sputnik 1 space has become militarized and nearly all space projects over the past Century have had some direct defense ramifications the Soviet Union's efforts to field a real space cannon in the 1970s are the best example of this fact in action how did it happen also what is the worst Space Project of the United States that is now feasible if Elon musk's Starship is a success let's find out hello everyone welcome back to Elon Musk Evolution where we bring you the most recent news about Elon Musk and his multi-billion dollar companies space news and the latest science and technology but before we begin make sure you subscribe to our Channel and click the Bell icon so you don't miss any of our amazing videos according to musk many Americans have started presuming that the U.S won the Cold War hands down in the decades following the fall of the Soviet Union from our political perspective in the 21st century we can see that the Soviet Union was in many ways an unsustainable Quagmire of Oppression and economic impossibility however in the early stages of Humanity's race to the Stars the Soviets not the Americans appeared destined for the top spot the first man-made object to circle the Earth successfully was Sputnik which was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4th 1957. a little over a month later the Soviets achieved another Triumph when they sent a stray dog named Laika in orbit laika's Mission appeared to demonstrate at least in part that live organisms are capable of space flight even though the dog would perish as it circled the Earth the Soviet space mission Luna 2 created history on September 14 1959 when it became the first artificial object to touch down on the moon however the Soviets greatest Triumph was still to come musk explained when the Soviet Union launched Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit on April 12 1961 and he spent 108 minutes in orbit before re-entering the atmosphere the world was once again reminded that the Soviet Union was the world's leading power in space technology these early successes in the space race meant much more to the Americans than simply enhancing their reputation abroad each victory for the Soviets not only increased the lead they had in securing the ultimate High Ground for their military but also demonstrated the viability of the Soviet communist economic and political system making the Soviet space program as much of an ideological threat as it was a military one however despite taking the role of the underdog in the early stages of the Space Race the United States used its post-world War II industrial and economic strength to start narrowing the Gap left by these early Soviet winds launching their own satellite less than 4 four months after Sputnik after the Soviet Gagarin by just over a month would come America's first space traveler Alan Shepard by 1969 the U.S would have prevailed and in the eyes of many its capitalist economic system as well thanks to its technological strength and a tremendous inflow of spending two veteran fighter pilots Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong successfully touched down on the moon on July 20 1969. amidst A continuing nuclear arms race musk says the Soviet Union quickly went from dominating orbital space to trailing behind as a result they perceived this change as a serious threat reports about the American manned orbital laboratory program which was envisioned as an early Space Station from which crews could perform orbital surveillance or perhaps Mount military operations against Soviet orbital bodies only served to increase their concerns the Soviet Union invested heavily in the Almaz space station project which was an early version of their own design in reaction to the mole program the concept which was concealed behind a public-facing civilian space station initiative actually called for a series of military-specific space stations in orbit around the planet each capable of carrying out its own high-altitude reconnaissance despite the United States decision to end its mole program in 1969 the Soviet effort persisted and went even farther with plans to outfit these space stations with the first cannon ever to fire in space going above and beyond the abandoned American mission the Soviet space Canon r23m car tech when they perceived the American mole program as a threat the Soviets were correct in truth a number of schemes and proposals for allowing the Americans to spy on Seas or otherwise destroy Soviet Satellites were being discussed in the pentagon's hallways in light of this the Soviet Union decided that their space stations would need to be outfitted with equipment that would allow them to do more than simply take photos of the planet below instead they wanted to be certain that their shelters in orbit could withstand any attacks the Americans may make according to musk they made the choice to model this new covert space cannon after the tupolev tu-22 Blinder their supersonic bomber and its 23 millimeter gun the Soviet government turned to the moscow-based KB talk Mash design agency which was already in charge of a number of successful aircraft weapons platforms for its new Mission as the world's first real space cannon the Canon's design was altered by engineer Alexander noodleman and his colleagues at KB talkmash to make use of the smaller 14.5 millimeter rounds
that could engage targets at distances of up to two miles with an incredible rate of fire of between 950 and 5000 rounds per minute depending on the source you read reports that were made public after the fall of the Soviet Union claimed that during ground testing the cannon successfully penetrated a metal gas can from a distance of more than a mile the cannon was intended to be permanently positioned on the underside of Soviet Almas space stations requiring operators to shift the entire 20-ton station in order to point the barrel of the cannon in the direction of a Target the Armament system was first attached to a soyuz spacecraft that had been altered and renamed the salute space station before being launched in 1971. however interest in these manned observation platforms was already starting to decline inside the Kremlin by the time the solute was in orbit as unmanned surveillance satellites appeared to be more useful the only Cannon ever fired in space even while American intelligence agencies were well aware of the Soviet Union's plan to build military space stations it was still very challenging to fully understand what was happening in the vast region of space above our heads on January 24 1975 the Soviet Union successfully finished a test launch of the r23m in orbit above the Earth under the cloak of perfect secrecy the precise outcomes of the test are still a secret because there was no crew on board at the time there have been unconfirmed allegations that the weapon fired between one and three bursts using a total of 20 shells the space station engaged its thrusters in order to counteract The Recoil of the fired bullets however it is logical to assume that the test may have failed in reality any video of the weapons test launch was lost when the salute 3 platform was de-orbited hours later and burned up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere cannons were replaced by Interceptor missiles when the Soviet Union planned and enhanced Almaz space station for upcoming missions however the program was scrapped before any such Weaponry could reach orbit at least according to the Declassified data musk explained the art and Technology of Warfare have continuously Advanced throughout human history and much like Natural Evolution itself fighting parties have been caught in a never-ending cycle of getting better and better our never-ending arms race dates back to ancient times when clubs Spears and arrows were used as weapons in more modern times we have access to Firearms missiles with growing lethality and of course nuclear weapons though even these are not seen as the ultimate destruction tools the area of space has been viewed as a sort of Last Frontier of warfare as research and development have continued to uncover and improve better ways to kill each other and defeat the other man what if you add access to weapons of mass destruction that could be launched into orbit where the adversary would be powerless to stop you and what if you could transport these weapons anywhere on the planet in a matter of minutes to wreak havoc from above this is almost too good to be true for the military and it may be upsetting to many people that this science fantasy scenario has been actively sought let's look at it the fact that it is in a sense forbidden makes it one of the key issues with using space as a Battleground nuclear biological and chemical weapons are forbidden from being deployed or used from Earth's orbit according to the outer space treaty which was signed by 107 nations in 1967 although war mongers will be disappointed there is a way around this what if the weapon wasn't chemical biological or nuclear in nature how could we come up with a plan that would violate the treaty yet be just as devastating although lasers have been suggested in the past they just haven't proven to be all that efficient at blowing things up unlike the Death Star in the Star Wars movies they just cost too much to grow require too much mental energy to focus and are useless at Great distances our technology in this area is woefully insufficient for anything other than possibly burning through a piece of plywood with a concentrated burst at close range for sustained periods on an immovable object or perhaps shining a tiny mini cat toy laser in an enemy's eyes Laser Technology for Warfare especially that from space has been largely considered a dead end musk stated however what if you could simply drop something massive on them from space it could seem ridiculous like something Wily coyote would say E coyote might attempt but this is a very serious very frightening area of science that is much more deadly than you might expect it is referred to as kinetic bombardment also termed a kinetic orbital strike which sounds much worse than huge heavy item thrown from orbit and it is truly frightening the fundamental idea behind it is to hit a target with an inert projectile that falls from orbit without the use of explosive moving parts propellants or chemicals the plan is for a satellite to carry a magazine of these items which are most likely tungsten rods around the size of a telephone pole and weighing approximately nine tons with fins attached to keep them straight and to essentially drop them towards a Target thus it must simply be a large heavy object descending toward Earth right you'd simply need to move out of the way and everything would be good well not exactly the projectile would accelerate dramatically as it moved through space going eight kilometers per second in orbit and eventually reaching an impact speed of around mach 10 as a move toward the surface of the Earth alone propelled by gravity just one of these rods from God would strike the surface penetrating hundreds of feet into the Earth and exploding with an explosion roughly equivalent to about 11.5 tons of TNT or 7.2 tons of dynamite when it released its stored kinetic energy the level of Destruction
they could inflict if more than one were dropped over a region would be comparable to that of a strategic nuclear strike for instance 100 rods would be equivalent to 1150 to 14 000 tons of TNT in terms of total destructive power which would be close to the output of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima without any Fallout radiation or the requirement for any form of actual explosives these missiles which are frequently referred to as project Thor are expected to be carried by six to eight satellites in orbit at any given moment enabling them to reach any Target on the planet's surface within 10 to 15 minutes of receiving a launch order the opponent would have very little time to prepare and in addition the launch would be hard to detect the rods would be hard to see on radar and they would be traveling so quickly that they would be practically impossible to defend against although it sounds terrible and there wouldn't be much an opponent could do to prevent or foresee such attacks this is all just science fiction speculation right once more not exactly it does sound very science fiction and the rods from God have in fact been mentioned in many science fiction stories Jerry pornell a former Boeing Employee who later became a science fiction writer actually came up with the idea for the rods from God in the 1950s however this is not purely fantasy in fact kinetic strikes have previously been applied in one way or another in real life in addition to being a completely sound and realizable notion and Theory since World War One massive quantities of metallic projectiles known as fleshettes were dropped from airplanes on enemy positions with an effect comparable to machine gun fire heavy solid objects thrown from tremendous Heights have been used the U.S occasionally used Lazy Dog bombs during the Vietnam and Korean Wars which dispersed hundreds of tiny solid metal chunks with fins of sheet metal welded on to allow a straighter fall and higher velocity each one hit with enough Force to penetrate nine inches of concrete after being dropped from as little as 3000 feet a kinetic weapon in this case a 100-pound modified missile with detachable blades for increased lethality was just dropped from an aircraft to completely destroy a vehicle carrying a senior Al Qaeda member in 2020 the principle behind this technology is sound and it works the only reason the rods from God from Project Thor aren't a reality right now is because of a lack of funding currently it would cost at least ten thousand dollars to get just one pound into space making it prohibitively expensive to launch such massive projectiles into orbit the only reason project Thor has not been pursued more aggressively is because it would be prohibitively expensive to launch hundreds of nine ton rods into orbit even yet the proposal has continued to be discussed by military leaders and has been taken into consideration more than once albeit only in a limited capacity as a bunker busting weapon if the price wasn't so prohibitive they would unquestionably see this through to completion and if they can figure this out then who knows although it makes you look up and hope there isn't a satellite up there with a rod pointed at us I think we are probably okay for the time being however according to musk this project is more than possible if Starship is successful how let's take a closer look how decreasing launch costs sparked a booming business in space business is expanding in space a rich ecosystem of products and services has grown in orbit around Earth and Beyond ranging from Joyrides for space tourists to science experiments in microgravity to massive Mega constellations of satellites that transmit high-speed internet to the ground the surgeon activity has been sparked in recent decades by a sharp decline in the cost of space launches the development of smaller less expensive components for satellites and other spacecraft and the expansion of commercial space Enterprises it has completely changed the orbital environment greatly enhancing human access to space and igniting the development of a commercial space industry that is expected to reach a trillion dollar size by 2025. companies can Now launch satellites into orbit for a fraction of the cost that they originally had to pay nowadays that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars launch projects for only a few thousand dollars is sometimes possible for businesses and students thanks to smaller satellites and lower launch costs according to Aerial ekblaw Creator and director of the MIT space exploration initiative it's a big sea change from the previous paradigm the cosmos once a domain occupied by a small number of space-faring governments is now accessible to developing space programs worldwide as well as to entrepreneurs and innovators commercial organizations and even students though extending access to space and sustaining an orbital economy have many positive effects for society they also present a number of obstacles such as how to strike a balance between a burgeoning business and the safe and responsible use of space how can we be certain that we are utilizing the opportunities while also being fully cognizant of the responsibility that goes along with that act blah remarked declining prices and Rising interest access to space has recently been more widely available as the cost of placing satellites and other things into orbit has decreased according to musk space launches were largely a government-dominated capability 20 years ago musk says there is far more room for Innovation now due to increased competition brought about by the entry of new commercial launch service providers like SpaceX and Rocket lab the cost of trips to space has decreased according to the union of concerned scientists in 2021 1702 new satellites were placed into Earth orbit raising the total number of satellites active in that region of space to 4852 in just three years prior in 2018 there were only around half as many satellites orbiting the Earth as there are now companies like SpaceX and oneweb who are building massive Mega constellations made up of tens of thousands of Internet satellites circling Earth are largely to blame for the recent increase in orbital congest similar plans for the launch of thousands of communication satellites into low earth orbit were made public this week by Amazon in order to bring high-speed internet all around the world but putting the entire blame on these Mega constellations is oversimplifying the issue according to Darren McKnight a senior technical fellow at Leo Labs a california-based Aerospace company that runs networks of ground-based Radars and tracking systems to monitor objects in low earth orbit and map their movements he noted that just a small portion of the objects in low earth orbit that are at danger for Collision are operating satellites furthermore the majority of more recent satellites may be moved out of Harm's Way if necessary unlike dead spacecraft that have lingered in orbit for decades in order to prevent the buildup of space trash it has also become a common practice for satellite operators to create an end-of-life strategy these tactics include directing a spacecraft to deliberately deorbit or burn up safely in Earth's atmosphere or leaving it in a higher graveyard orbit far from the planet's most populated regions the dangers are nevertheless very real as launches continue it is anticipated that there will be an increase in space debris in low earth orbit bad neighborhoods or regions where large clouds of debris offer very significant hazards have already started to appear according to McKnight the next five to ten years would see a significant occurrence in specific parts of Earth's orbit he predicted we're looking at a 10 to 15 percent probability of a collision which sounds unlikely but by leaving these objects in orbit since the mid-80s we're tossing the dice a lot said the researcher a succession of recent anti-satellite missile tests including one in 2019 by Russia one in 2019 by India and one in 2018 by China as well as a separate unintentional satellite Collision in 2009 increased the hazards a non-governmental organization that focuses on Space policy the secure World Foundation estimates that each incident created thousands of pieces of debris larger than a golf ball as well as even smaller more difficult to track items in an effort to improve situational awareness in space and support the preservation of low earth orbit Leo Labs is only one of numerous for-profit organizations along with the thorough mapping and tracking provided by Leo Labs businesses like astroscale are developing technology to actively remove debris from orbit and finding ways to increase the lifespan of satellites in orbit one of the issues is that while launches are governed by national laws in each Nation there is no Global authority to regulate what happens in space it's been a while before policies caught up with the industry's expansion and it's not obvious whether any formal International Accords can be reached very soon according to caller of the Aerospace Corps it feels like we are developing the plane as we fly it the stakes for preserving sustainability in space are high however given society's Reliance on satellite systems for everything from telecommunications to security and defense according to Whedon who also serves as the chair of the commercial space Transportation advisory committee a division of the Federal Aviation Administration whether or not our nation has satellites in orbit she remarked we are all users of space space is essential to our daily existence hence I fervently believe that this is a motivating object for Humanity and that ends today's episode what do you think of this episode let us know your thoughts in the comment box below please subscribe and don't forget to like today's video we'll see you in the next video thank you so much for watching
2023-02-15