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hkmaly

NP: Monday, January 23, 2017

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Most of the early orbital launch rockets were built out of modified ICBMs, so yes an ICBM that can reach the opposite side of the Earth can reach orbit with a lighter payload.

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1 hour ago, mlooney said:
8 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Intercontinental ballistic missiles have longer range and also move ballistically, don't they? I would expect that jumping in way your trajectory resembles ballistic missiles would be possible. You would also suffocate few minutes after start of jump, but you WOULD fall back to earth.

Or it was JUST the speed and not distance which was problem?

Some ICBM can make orbit.  There is a theoretically  banned attack method where the ICBM enters orbit, then de-orbits to hit the target.  Banned because "national technical means" would not be able to tell the launch from a space launch.

As if USA, Russia and China wouldn't have orbital missile platforms ...

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

As I said in the SF physics thread, low earth orbital speed is 7.8 km/s

You can't get lost on low earth orbit. There are programs tracking all sort of garbage on low earth orbit so it won't collide with not-yet-turned-into-garbage satellites.

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Just now, hkmaly said:

As if USA, Russia and China wouldn't have orbital missile platforms ...

Good, they haven't found Canada's platforms yet.

 

What? I didn't say anything.

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7 hours ago, Scotty said:

Good, they haven't found Canada's platforms yet.

 

What? I didn't say anything.

Flocks of geese circling a potential target and launching traditional bird projectiles do not constitute orbital missile platforms.

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
spelling

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36 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Flocks of geese circling a potential target and launching traditional bird projectiles do not constitute orbital missile platforms.

Bah, those geese are still in training with tracer rounds, the real attackers will be carrying hockey pucks.

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3 hours ago, Scotty said:

Bah, those geese are still in training with tracer rounds, the real attackers will be carrying hockey pucks.

Getting the geese to swallow the pucks has slowed weapon deployment...

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12 hours ago, Scotty said:
16 hours ago, hkmaly said:

As if USA, Russia and China wouldn't have orbital missile platforms ...

Good, they haven't found Canada's platforms yet.

What? I didn't say anything.

Must've been though to get them up without getting on this list.

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2 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Must've been though to get them up without getting on this list.

We have our ways, you do know that the space shuttles were, and the international space station is, equiped with Canadian made robotic arms? ;)

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9 minutes ago, Scotty said:
16 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Must've been though to get them up without getting on this list.

We have our ways, you do know that the space shuttles were, and the international space station is, equiped with Canadian made robotic arms? ;)

Ah, I see. You put parts of the platforms into the arms and when noone was looking you put them together and thrown them to proper trajectory.

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3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Ah, I see. You put parts of the platforms into the arms and when noone was looking you put them together and thrown them to proper trajectory.

Yeah, we had to scramble to get the last few pieces up before the shuttles were retired. It's a shame we couldn't finish the moon base though.

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1 hour ago, Scotty said:

It's a shame we couldn't finish the moon base though.

Don't beat yourself up for not making that one work.  There really is nothing worth doing there.

For example, the best restaurant on the Moon only got a one star rating in the travel guide.  The review put it succinctly.  "The food is decent.  The service is significantly above adequate.  And the prices are, all things considered, quite reasonable.  But there is no atmosphere."

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Punctuation

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7 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Flocks of geese circling a potential target and launching traditional bird projectiles do not constitute orbital missile platforms.

 

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

Bah, those geese are still in training with tracer rounds, the real attackers will be carrying hockey pucks.

Actually, a hockey puck, dropped from orbit, could probably do a decent amount of damage.  The trick would be aiming accurately enough.

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1 minute ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:
24 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

I have no idea what a hockey puck is made of

Vulcanized Rubber.  Logically.

Puns again? :)

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13 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, I guess I have no idea what a hockey puck is made of, so I don't know.  Guess we'd better stick to crowbars.

Much depends on how fast you can accelerate the hockey puck.  Meteors can hit the earth's atmosphere at such speeds that whatever survives an impact would actually be cool to touch.  At a high enough speed, any part of the surface that experiences friction at all instantly vaporizes, so little or no heat is conveyed to the interior. 

13 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Vulcanized Rubber.  Logically.

I'd recommend a crunchy Uranium 238 center.  Uranium has twice the density of lead for that extra "kick" when you really want it...

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5 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:
19 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, I guess I have no idea what a hockey puck is made of, so I don't know.  Guess we'd better stick to crowbars.

Much depends on how fast you can accelerate the hockey puck.  Meteors can hit the earth's atmosphere at such speeds that whatever survives an impact would actually be cool to touch.  At a high enough speed, any part of the surface that experiences friction at all instantly vaporizes, so little or no heat is conveyed to the interior. 

Even if the meteor would be standing still (or nearly so), EARTH would hit it in 30km/s.

(Top speed of meteor is about 42 km/s but average is about 20km/s according to wikipedia)

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2 hours ago, Cpt. Obvious said:
On 01/26/2017 at 1:10 AM, HarJIT said:

Thank you. You've saved me from way to many hours of doing something useful. That page is just slightly less dangerous than tvtropes...

Not true. TVTropes are much bigger. You can't get lost on what-if.xkcd more than twice.

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