I think it’s really cool a guy named **Dr. Strangelove **has his own orbiting battle station. Even if its weapons are really, really, tiny & weak. Its at least a start.
But I think one of the rules of successful super-villainy is to avoid using names which would call attention to oneself. Likewise advertising your plans or capabilities on the internet is also one of the rules to avoid breaking. Oh well …
Yes, but if you call yourself “Dr. Really Nice Guy Who Totally Respects Your Feeling AND Loves Kittens” then how are you going to recruit henchmen? Plus, the Evil Lair Real Estate Agency won’t return your calls, and Evil Con keeps ‘losing’ your registration form. It’s tough to make connections…
It’s also not dissimilar to the plot of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Zakalwe: Agreed. That is a problem. “Dr. Strangelove” is maybe a compromise name; sorta evil, yet plausibly deniable. Especially when networking with younger folks who never saw the movie or read the book.
Further, on much belated proof-reading I see I fouled up 2 of my 3 its/it’s. Sheesh; I know better than that.
Yeah, he should had used Dr. Merkwürdigliebe…
[spoiler]“Bilingual Bonus: Dr. Strangelove’s name used to be Merkwürdigliebe before he moved to the US and had it changed. Merkwürdigliebe translates as strange love.”
[/spoiler]
How curious! I thought using the titular name from such a fun and family-friendly movie as Dr. Strangelove would be excellent cover. He is, after all, the most sensible and heroic character in the film, even if he does have rather sentimental views on the survival of humanity. If I had my own salt mine… ho ho ho! What a lair I could build! Though now that I think about it, the main difference between my lair and his shelter is that mine would instead be filled with loyal minions. And Dr. Strangelove is the one proposing an algorithmic selection algorithm–one that could easily be tweaked in his favor. Clever bastard!
Orbiting battle station? I’ll have you know that it is a beamed solar energy platform. Hippies love it! And if anyone objects, I’ll win them over by beaming some free energy right to their house.
BTW, the whole “cubesat cannon” system is built by a company called NanoRacks, which acts as a go-between between private organizations and NASA. You write them a check and give them a cubesat. They test it, integrate it, and all the other stuff that needs to happen before a cubesat goes to space. The launchers get loaded up on a Dragon or Cygnus capsule and it ends up on the ISS.
They were our provider as well, and while they did a good job in the end they did seem a little scatterbrained as an organization, so something like this isn’t a complete surprise.
We were almost launched using this hi-tech method. I would have liked to see pictures of a Russian chucking the satellite like a baseball. I’m not sure if it’s more or less reliable than the NanoRacks method…
Your generosity knows no bounds, Your Excellency. Perhaps you need a deputy [strikethrough]super-villain[/strikethrough] watch officer to spell you during overnight hours at your lair? I’d be honored …
Hijacking satellites is also plot point in John Michael Greer’s Twilight’s Last Gleaming:
Greer’s spun it out into a book but you can read the original series on his blog,it’s a brisk and entertaining read.
If a private (non-state) actor somehow was able to physically get to space and make off with a satellite, how would jurisdiction be determined for a subsequent trial? Iirc, space law normally follows the jurisdiction of the ship - so a person flying a Russian spaceship out of Russia remains under Russian jurisdiction. But what if said astronaut steals a Japanese satellite? Would Japanese courts have jurisdiction to charge them with the theft, or would it have to go before a Russian court?