🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Jones <dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com> writes:
> F.Baube x554 (flb@flb.optiplan.fi) wrote:
> > 
> > There could also be megabits of nugget-sized space 
> > junk to ventilate any later space vehicles.  But also, 
> 
> Nope.  The warhead wouldn't be in orbit and its doubtful if any fragments
> would attain orbital velocity of any kind during the explosion.

I'm thinking of some 80's studies that forecast lots of space junk.
Perhaps they were describing shooting matches between orbiting platforms.

> > if plutonium warheads are "destroyed" by Smart Pebbles 
> > (or whatever they're being called now), couldn't the 
> > atmosphere be filled with enough plutonium dust to 
> > give every person on the planet bone cancer ?
> 
> A lot of interception technology is based on giving the target enough of
> a shock to disable the high-tech firing mechanisms and/or guidance systems.
> Nuclear warheads don't explode when intercepted.  They just don't go off 
> when they get to the target, if they get there at all.  You just wind up
> with a lot of small, very dangerous impact craters on the ground.

But aren't (or, weren't) some interceptor proposals based on 
physical collision with a warhead ?  This could blow one to 
plutonium-rich dust.  Or is the idea some sort of proximity fuse ?

-- 
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