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bdammtoday at 9:27 PM2 repliesview on HN

You've described a space station, which three countries have already done independently (Mir, SkyLab, Tiangong).

But dropping rods from an orbiting platform makes no sense. There's a reason that "Rods from God" didn't pan out, and it has to do with orbital dynamics. Neither Bezos nor Musk can do it, because it actually doesn't work.


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ryan_j_naughtontoday at 10:26 PM

> There's a reason that "Rods from God" didn't pan out, and it has to do with orbital dynamics. Neither Bezos nor Musk can do it, because it actually doesn't work.

Can you say more on this? Thanks!

Ajakkstoday at 9:48 PM

I doubt it was seriously considered at the time it was discussed. Space Stations are in orbit - the space battleship doesn't have to be, that is very significant.

Earth is spinning in a giant circle around the sun. Thats facts. "aiming an asteroid" is less of making a rock a missile - and a lot more of tug-boating it into the exact right spot, in the way of earth, so that earth hits the asteroid - not anything complicated like the asteroid hitting earth.

There are a lot of little things like that...

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