[AR] Re: Nothing to do with rockets.
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2021 11:54:52 -0400 (EDT)
On Sun, 3 Oct 2021, roxanna Mason wrote:
This reminds me of Bob Truax's non nuclear ICBM proposal. A giant/heavy
chunk of inert mass like iron or even concrete at orbital velocity has
the kinetic energy of a nuclear weapon plus the penetrating capacity to
bust a hardened silo. His Sea Dragon was a candidate launch vehicle for
such a weapon which would orbit 1000 tons...
Note that 13kt of stone at 19km/s mostly just broke a bunch of windows in
Chelyabinsk. Iron, maybe, but stone just bursts at high altitude,
especially if it comes in at a shallow angle (like an orbital reentry).
Kiloton rocks hit Earth's atmosphere with some frequency.
Henry
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