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Chinese Missile Destroys Satellite


Dr. Shane

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Chinese missile destroys satellite in space

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Britain has joined the US, Japan and Australia's condemnation of China after the communist country destroyed a satellite in space using a ballistic missile.

wchina19.jpg

Quote:
"What we are concerned about however is lack of consultation and we believe that this development of this technology and the manner in which this test was conducted is inconsistent with the spirit of China's statements to the UN and other bodies on the military use of space."

The Chinese authorities have not confirmed a US report that it blew up one of its own aged weather satellites last Thursday with a ballistic missile fired from the Xichang space centre in Sichuan province.

Look's like China is going to replace the USSR as the world's second super power.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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Arguably they have already

Also remember that the USA has had anti-satellite missiles for decades - and the Bush admin argument that we are allowed to militarise space and no-one else is is patently absurd.

/Bevin

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If we are going to allow satellites to be destroyed then will space be a safe place to travel with all the space junk.

May we be one so that the world may be won.
Christian from the cradle to the grave
I believe in Hematology.
 

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Nope - it will get steadily less safe as the junk builds up

But remember - we did it first... and what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

/Bevin

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Buut... the worry with this is not so much about space junk. If you do some fairly simple math on the volume of space around the earth compared to the volume of junk, the probability of hitting anything is pretty slender. The worry is much more about a country having the ability to wipe out a lot of communications, including GPS access, by destroying satellites.

Truth is important

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Estimates of 40,000 pieces of junk added from this destruction.

On earlier flights the space shuttle has recorded hits on various pieces of debris - but nothing serious yet.

Quick math... (time to run, ye who fear math)

The shuttle has a cross section of about 400 sq m

It orbits the earth at about 400 km up, but the earth's

radius is about 4000 km, so another 400 is irrelevant,

so each orbit sweeps out about 400 sq m x 2 x pi x 4,000,000 m

= 1,600,000,000 cubic meters

and it does this about 15 x per day on a flight

and flights last about 6 days 15 x 6 is about 100 so

160,000,000,000 = 1.6E11 cubic meters are swept per mission

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html

estimates 100,000 pieces of junk in low earth orbit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit defines this

as in the 200 - 2000 km altitude. The volume of a sphere is

4/3 x pi x r^3, so (just trust me) this means low earth orbit is about 6.4E20

So the shuttle is sweeping about 6.4E20/1.6E11 = 4E9 of the space per mission, and there is 1E5 pieces of junk, so it has a 1E5/4E9 = 2.5E-5 probably of hitting a significant piece of junk in a mission. About 3 chances in 100,000.

On the other hand, it has about a 1% chance of blowing up or failing on reentry (2 failures in less than 200 launches) so the space junk is not high on their list of concerns...

/Bevin

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Look's like China is going to replace the USSR as the world's second super power.

A superpower WITHOUT a blue water navy. No Aircraft carriers and no long range navy. Hardly a threat yet.

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Unless things change, I don't see China as a threat to the US anyway. They are a threat to Tawain but they have no reason to theaten the US. We help their economy and they help ours. Having them as the world's second superpower appears to be much better than having the USSR in that position.

Political change is bound to take place in China as it economy and technology developes. Space and nuclear technology will eventually be available to any nation willing to spend the money for it. This simply means that international agreements have to be enforced to prevent nations with such technology from abusing it. China could become a major player in enforcing such agreements. I see no reason in treating them with hostility.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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Arguably they have already

Yes that would be arguable. They are on their way and as their economy grows they will have more money to invest in the infrastructure to make them a mature superpower.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_china_123104,00.html

One day in November, a nuclear-powered Chinese Navy submarine quietly slipped past this western Pacific island, home port for five supply and ammunition ships positioned here by the U.S. military for rapid deployment around the world.

...

According to military analysts, China is rapidly expanding its submarine force to about 85 by 2010, about one-third more than today.

...

The Chinese are converting their surface navy into a truly modern antiship cruise-missile surface navy," McVadon, now an East Asia security consultant, said after attending a naval review conference in Hawaii. "The modernization of their navy has taken a great leap forward. Their nuclear sub program has taken off like wildfire."

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I think the fear is that since they are building up a strong military, they must be preparing for war. However the US built up a strong, peace-time military during the 1980s and no major war resulted in the 1990s. In the 1990s the US drastically downsized their military and CIA as a result of the USSR falling and it was with this much smaller military that it went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Historically China has been invaded by many of its neighbors and the US has been able to prevent it from taking control of Tawain. It is logical that they would want to be on an equal footing with the US, if not a step ahead. A war between them would be so devestating, it is hard to believe either would want it. Both have the submarine technology to launch cruise missles into the other from near its shores. Such missles could take out bridges and power plants. Both also have the technology to knock each other satellites out of the sky which could impact television and cell phones. Thus each could easily leave the other without power, mass transportation and modern communication. That threat alone is a big deterant to such a war from happening. So China may be seeking to avoid war rather than start war with the US.

It would be nice, however, if they would state exactly what their motives are.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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If they stated their reason to be peaceful ... would you believe them ??

I for one ... WOULD NOT.

May we be one so that the world may be won.
Christian from the cradle to the grave
I believe in Hematology.
 

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I agree with you on that 100%. I can still remember in the early 60's or mid 60's our jewish adventist church were having evangelist meetings for the Jewish people in NYC, down in manhattan, and Pastor JM Hoffman was saying that just before christ returns that China (the sleeping Bear or something if I recall correctly) would awaken again. It seems interesting that that is what is happening.

pkrause

phkrause

By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. {5T 451.1}
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When "sleeping bears" awaken after hibernation, they're really hungry. What would the world do if China starts grabbing territory belonging to others?

We could easily bomb Iraq off the map if necessary, but taking on China without using nuclear weapons might be a serious challenge.

The Parable of the Lamb and the Pigpen https://www.createspace.com/3401451
 

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If it came down to that I suspect we would do the same thing we did with the USSR. We would arm our allies in the region with nuclear missles. However that is a big "IF".

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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Quote:

One day in November, a nuclear-powered Chinese Navy submarine quietly slipped past this western Pacific island, home port for five supply and ammunition ships positioned here by the U.S. military for rapid deployment around the world.

...

I have heard that it is the Diesel electric subs that are of even greater concern than the nuclear subs. When they are running on electric they are virtually silent and therefore undetectible.

I think China took delivery of two in '05. There was an incident last yeartwhere what was thought to be a D/Electric got close to carrier group and was undetected for days. Thats serious business and sounds like a plot from a Patrick Robinson novel!

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

Einstein

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We would arm our allies in the region with nuclear missles.

Which allies did the US arm with nuclear missiles?

/Bevin

"Would" Bevin WOULD

May we be one so that the world may be won.
Christian from the cradle to the grave
I believe in Hematology.
 

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I know, but you said 'do the same as we did with the USSR' before that.

Anyway... what perhaps Americans don't fully understand yet is that many in the rest of the world no longer trust that America's intentions are peaceful.

Truth is important

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The Trident missles that the UK still has were built in the US.

When the USSR threatened western Europe with SS-20 missiles, the US offered western Europe its Pershing IIs but the USSR withdrew its SS-20s before that happened.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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perhaps Americans don't fully understand yet is that many in the rest of the world no longer trust that America's intentions are peaceful.

This may be so but which would the rest of the world rather trust, China or America?

Australia is closer to China's neighborhood than the US. If China became agrressive, I suspect Australia would reconsider having nuclear weapons.

Certainly the US would want to see that the Philipians, Japan and South Korea could deter a Chinesse attack. However I don't see China becoming aggressive with anyone other than Tiwain and perhaps some of its western provinces.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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