The arrogantly named "Rods from God" weapons from space weapons of mass destruction "WMD" program is well underway and has received a substantial boost from the successful trial attack on comet Tempel-1. The NASA probe "Deep Impact" provided military observers with significant data and analysis concerning the proper design for kinetic energy weapons configured to slam into an Earth ground target, releasing an explosion similar to an atomic weapon but without the radiation.
Conspiracy theories are very attractive I know. But in all seriousness the practicality of sending up massive tugnsten rods into LEO as part of an orbital attack platform isn't very good. The way the thing would work is basically huge tugnsten rods would sit on an orbital platform in space. If released at the appropriate moment the tungsten rod will fall from space and strike a predetermined location. The equavilent energy of the strike would be about that of a nuclear bomb except without the radiation.
The costs would be massive.
And we aren't talking about a guided weapon here - we are completely dependent on math. If our math is wrong, we can easily take out LA or who knows where else. Not to mention the problems they would have trying to design a tugnsten rod that didn't burn up in the atmosphere, and had the appropriate shape to not tumble out of trajectory because of aerodynamics.
My own personal conspiracy theory was that this mission was NASA's secret way to test detonations on celestial bodies. It's only a matter of time before one of these mammoths gets Earth in its crosshairs. And if that did happen, with our little knowledge, we could do nothing.
But hey one conspiracy theory is as good as another. And they're probably both wrong.
Tip o' the hat to Deep Space Bombardment.
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