The US Military's Secret Space Weapon

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[BCaldwell]

The flat earth society has members all around the globe 🌎

[SWRaptor]

You're not considering that they could simply put a guidance package like the JDAM uses, only made for re-entry. It has fins and a brain to guide it. Acting like it would just be a simple pole dropped is kinda silly. It would have some sort of guidance systems in place.

[OldMan]

You might wanna get rid of better help. Many people have very negative reviews of their help.

[veramae]

AKA "Thor's Hammer", a proposal for a space weapon. Basically a steel rod with a tiny aiming brain.
Jerry Pournelle, a guy who was an expert in almost everything. Polymath.
If you're interested one of his novels with Larry Niven "Footfall" uses the idea.

[johnpulman]

E = mc² isn’t relevant to a kinetic energy weapon - the energy of the mass is not released, just its momentum.

[aliensoup]

Controlling the orientation during descent would not be that difficult. Simply contain the majority of the mass at the "front" of the rod, much like an arrow.

[ProuvaireJean]

Jerry Pournelle is arguably best known as a science fiction writer and (for those old enough to remember) columnist for Byte magazine.

[mrfoogaba]

A 9-ton tungsten rod hitting Earth at orbital speed (7.8 km/s) would release about 458 GJ of energy, equivalent to 109.5 tons of TNT.


Ek = (1/2) * 9000 kg * (7800 m/s)^2 = 458 GJ
458 GJ / (4.184 * 10^9 J/Tonne TNT) = 109.5 Tons TNT

- MOAB: ~11 tons TNT
- Hiroshima (Little Boy): ~15, 000 tons TNT
- Modern nuclear bombs: several million tons TNT

So, the rod's impact is like 10 MOABs but far less than a nuclear bomb.

[bigkenny]

You ever hear of retrofire and guidance?

[charlesrovira]

_Worst idea?_ Hardly... Imagine the damage a single impactor could do to a single city. Now spread them around the planet.
*Rods From The Gods* would be easily implemented by a few dozen *StarShips* floating in _Synchronous Orbit_ just sitting there, looming, but not violating any *Nuclear Treaties.*
They could be released, guided by simple chemical rockets to any GPS coordinate on the planet, and make one hell of a splash or splat when they hit the ground.

[cat_a]

The trouble with this is that you first have to hoist these heavy RFG's up into orbit and load them into a launch platform. Also, they are very inaccurate. This concept was looked into by the military several decades ago ad rejected as impractical

[projectarduino]

It’s all fun and games until you have to deorbit the platform at the end of its service life.

On a different note, having a simple solid rocket booster and a basic guidance package is normal for modern missiles. Worst comes to worst, the guidance fins, computers, and solid rocket motor are just regularly swapped out from the top of a metal rod. It’s far cheaper than replacing the entire unit, and it’s probably cheaper still than having a nuclear silo program.

Similarly, you don’t need to drop it directly down, just cause it to have a suborbital trajectory like any classical ballistic missile and boom. Weapon. If you watch a video of ballistic missile reentry test vehicles (for nuclear missile tests) they come to impact site at like a 35degree angle above the horizon.

[OGPatriot]

I appreciate that this video tackles some of the obvious problems with this concept that are rarely addressed. However I would like to bring to your attention that in order for the rod's hypothetical orbital trajectory to intercept the earth's surface you don't HAVE to lower your orbital velocity.


If Kerbal Space Program has taught me right, you can burn Radially or anti-Radially (towards the Nadir or the Zenith, aka toward or away from the planet's center) to adjust the eccentricity of your orbit whilst maintaining orbital velocity. As for aiming, if Mechjeb can do it then I think the Space Force could manage..

[Nightbringer]

Control fins and a booster with thrust vectoring would solve most of the issues you cited.

I think you took “dropping a rod” too literal. They wouldn’t literally drop a tungsten rod. It would have control surfaces and likely a booster engine to launch and direct the rod.

[MadGeorge]

you wouldn't have to make a massive platform in space to launch these god rods, you'd just need a to use equal thrust in the opposite direction against the launch thrust for the rod from god. Like a PRIG launcher or recoilless rifle.

[charlesrovira]

@10:20 I'm sorry but you _ass-u-me_ that any rod would be released without some form of rocket-propelled _guidance system._
@10:50 The fall would not be from 200 miles, but from 35, 786 km (22, 236 miles.)

[_starfiend]

'Earthquake bombs' Look up the Grand Slam and Tall Boy. Invented by the same guy who invented the bouncing bomb.

[Chuck]

I think you're overthinking things, my dude. Most of these issues have already been solved, especially the targeting. MIRV nuclear warheads are neither powered, nor steered to their targets. They're merely aimed upon release from the MIRV vehicle, and follow a simple ballistic trajectory - with a quick spin initiated by a motor for anti-tumble stability. Similar to barrel rifling, but without the barrel. There's no directional control, nor thrust emanating from them, and they fall like a bolt of lightning till they go boom. Lots of youtube vids showing the speeds at which they enter (video from weapons tests). They're traveling so fast, it looks like a lightning strike.

The only issue would be getting a crapload of tungsten weight up there to begin with.

[reginaldorossi]

I don’t know about profit but this channel is delivering the best content for me this days

[rollingmancave]

Great idea if we could get them to orbit. If the launch system were maneuverable it would be the ultimate first strike weapon at 5 mi/sec.