Its like ICBMs, but for cargo.
>GRAPEVINE, Texas — The U.S. Air Force is exploring the logistics of space-based cargo operations under the purview of Air Mobility Command, even as the impact of a new Space Force on the mobility community remains to be seen.
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It's an almost intoxicating idea, to deliver 150 metric tonnes per craft anywhere on the planet within 45 minutes from launch.
Motherfucking drop ships. Just think about it.
Right? Between cargo hauling at a rate that already makes air mobility command drool and the ability to launch high mass cargo for next to nothing, it's enough to get you asking "spaceships when?"
>Be Chinese radar operator
>Sees incoming object on ballistic missile speed and trajectory heading this way
>Launch all the missiles
Yeah. This is gonna end up well for everyone.
>>Sees incoming object on ballistic missile speed and trajectory heading this way
This is something that's been wargamed out before. People don't assume that a single launch is a first strike because it doesn't make any sense.
ODST when?
outsource this to spacex and save a lot of money
they are already working on the design and infrastructure for this type of shit
>outsource this to spacex and save a lot of money
That's literally what they're doing.
>outsource this to spacex and save a lot of money
>defensenews.com
>us-air-force-explores-space-based-cargo-operations-confirms-talks-with-spacex/
>talks-with-spacex/
>spacex
learn to read, nigger
we're actually gearing up to resist the ayys? not just a defensive rearguard/fabian but real logs and new systems? this is great! we're gonna win this thing!
>spacex
>save a lot of money
Good goy.
>pre-positioned cargo stored in earth orbit
that's just asking for ASATs to be used during a conflict, which would be bad for everyone. although you could make an argument for something like THAAD to be used instead since it would destroy the resupplies while they are in the atmosphere.
>cargo rocket launches
obviously this screams ICBMs, but does it really? everyone knows each other's spaceports. also rockets get launched all the time. a launch would require a NOTAM to be sent out and the enemy would have a heads up that the launch probably isn't a ballistic missile.
the idea isn't terrible, but it's probably financially unfeasible right now. rocket launches just cost way too much atm. bfr may change that though, so we'll see, but if it happens, it's probably 20-30 years away at minimum.
>that's just asking for ASATs to be used during a conflict
Prepo counter-ASAT interceptors in orbit. I doubt orbital storage will be a thing, but point to point transport and reusable rockets for spamming hypersonic glide vehicle salvos are definitely attractive. So is orbital storage as polite code for surge capacity Brilliant Pebbles II.
Sure, Elon is fleecing his customers to fund his crazy Mars dreams, but SpaceX still beats the hell out of United Launch Alliance's prices while delivering a better product.
Can't believe I get to post this, but the Russians had a similar idea
did you see that congress is pushing for brilliant pebbles again?
btw, it would be cool as fuck to be hanging out in LA decades from now, watching the Space Force launch cargo and whatever else into a future conflict zone
Yes, it's the hidden lede behind the SpaceX story.
SDI hurt Russian feels enough when it was a big public program (thus their nuke kamikaze sub, new hypersonic program etc). Reusable rockets offer the possibility of hiding an entire SDI infrastructure in a warehouse somewhere and deploying it overnight.
>Motherfucking drop ships. Just think about it.
Replace the 150 tons of cargo with JDAMs and it a Motherfucking war winner. Just think about it.
>Air Force exploring space-based cargo operations
Air Force lost its space mission, who cares about what it is exploring. USAF is even more irrelevant now. Posting a typical airman.
i saw this post on reddit just now:
>To me it seems like the main idea would be to store communication and observation assets in orbits that are safe from satellite killer debris, and EMPs from neutron bombs. LEO and MEO would not be safe from such attacks. If it were up to me, I would put these assets in the graveyard orbits above GEO, and bring them down to GEO in the event that lower orbit assets were destroyed.
i didn't notice that before, but if that is the case then that is something that i have heard elsewhere. the idea is that during a conflict that extends into space, having backup satellites stored in space will be part of the solution to keeping your national security space infrastructure intact. we currently do it with GPS, but the key difference here is that these satellites may be located in distant orbits, beyond the reach of most ASATs, where they would be slowly transferred to a useful orbit once we start losing satellites.
>60-90m per launch on a Falcon 9
>150-300m on a Delta
Oh my god, there's no cost savings at all
>150 tonnes
>Avg weight of military personnel = 180 pounds
>Avg weight of gear = 60 pounds
>Can carry 1377 equipped troops
FUCK YES! PHILIP BONO IS VINDICATED. ITHACUS WILL FLY!
ASATs are always going to happen. Literally every other nation with the capability has more to gain than lose by wrecking our space assets even if it causes a cascade.
Wtf? This is insane, even for Russia. More on this?
Other thing to look at is if spaceflight becomes so cheap you just have large constellations of satellites and it just becomes impossible to take out everything.
they'll figure some way to mitigate large constellations, like wide area jamming or inexpensive ground-to-space lasers. i think a mix of constellation sizes are more likely.
No no no. Look up Kessler Syndrome m8.
Considering ground based lasers can't really go beyond several miles without losing power, it'll be hard to do. Espicially since to avoid vast distances, the satellite has to be traveling near where the laser is. Besides, the laser shooting it also becomes target number 1.
Space is extremely large and you have the problem above of shooting enough crap down before it gets to that. AMD constellations will be in leo where the atmosphere drags everything down.
en.wikipedia.org
So an updated rocket mail. Sure. I'm game.
What if...
...we put lasers on the moon!
There's nothing more insufferable than spacex/musk fanboys
Fuck off and kill yourself.
laser rangefinding on the moon is supposedly a chinese proposal
for lasing a satellite i mean using the laser to temporarily blind spy sats. i dont know how effective the systems are but i know that both china and russia have their own programs. russia even has an air-based one. there was also at least one event where china supposedly temporarily blinded a US sat with a laser.
I'm not much of a Musk fan, but blatantly wrong criticism of SpaceX delegitimizes actual criticism.
>the aggregate savings of 3 Falcon Heavy launches in lieu of 3 Delta IV Heavy launches exceeds the entire US Govt. (USAF & NASA) investment in SpaceX
qz.com
>NASA would have spent $4b developing rockets comparable to Falcon 1 & 9, which SpaceX merely spent $390m on
ntrs.nasa.gov
SpaceX is probably the best return-on-value investment the US Govt. has made
Launch commercial missions and we'll fanboy you too, Bezos
>Launch commercial missions and we'll fanboy you too, Bezos
He's got enough money funding their ops that I'll be honestly surprised if they don't in relatively short order.