# Space Force in action? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198 "2020-09-22T02:41:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198/21 "2020-09-27T18:36:59Z")
That’s great for little bits of debris from time to time. Not going to hold up long in a Kessler syndrome scenario. > [@Reply](#): > > I don’t think they’re fast enough for tank shells but can take out incoming missiles. But orbiting satellites are going maybe twice as fast? > **[How to Film Tank Shells in Flight and in Slow Motion](https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/how-to-film-tank-shells-in-flight-and-in-slow-motion)** > > Filming tank shells in flight and nuclear explosions require many extra layers of engineering and clever camera tricks to capture moments unfathomably faster than a blink of an eye. > [@](#): > > A tank shell comes out of a barrel traveling at a whopping [**1.5 - 2 kilometers per second**](http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a182362.pdf). > **[Low Earth orbit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit)** > > A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never more than about one-third of the radius of Earth (or about 2000 kilometers). > The term LEO region is also used for the area of space below an altitude of 2,000 km (1,200 mi) (about one-third of Earth's radius). Objects in orbits that pass through this zone, e... > [@](#): > > The mean **orbital velocity** needed to maintain a stable **low Earth orbit** is about 7.8 km/s And if they are travelling in opposite directions, double that. If we can do a bit of asteroid mining, then we could probably shield spacecraft. Or, we could put a small asteroid in low Earth orbit and just use that bulk for shielding. But, as long as we have to launch from the Earth, it’s not going to be practical to put up any sort of armor that would allow you to stay in low earth orbit for too long. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198/22 "2020-09-27T22:19:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, if the satellite you’re “pushing downwards” is so strategically valuable that it’s worth sacrificing an entire X-37 to destroy it. I’m not sure why you’d sacrifice an expensive manned vehicle for a job that could be done by a cheap missile, though. As I understand it, it has nothing to do with self-sacrifice; the shuttle could use a robot arm or something to just give the enemy satellite a push downwards towards Earth. No harm to the X-37 shuttle itself. Then fly up to other enemy satellites, rinse and repeat. In this way, you could take out entire fleets of enemy satellites. Of course, it would only be a matter of time until China or Russia had similar shuttles that could do the same to American satellites (except for sats like GPS, those are much too far away from Earth.) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198/23 "2020-09-27T22:29:22Z")
Color me extremely skeptical that is going to work. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198/24 "2020-09-27T23:43:04Z")
To even contemplate doing that, you’d have to first match orbit with the satellite. And the robot arm on the Shuttle isn’t suitable for “throwing” anything: It’s really, really slow. And if you can match orbits, you could just put the entire enemy satellite in your cargo bay and abscond with it: I’m sure the US intelligence services could find some way to make use of that. EDIT: And “then fly up to other enemy satellites, rinse, and repeat” is just flat-out ludicrous. You’ve matched orbits with one satellite. Having done so, you don’t have enough fuel to match up with any more. People have this tendency to think of “space” as one place, and so if you’re there anyway, you might as well go to all the other things in space. But space isn’t one place; it’s a whole bunch of places, almost all of them in fact. It’d be like saying “You can just get a truck, and use it to attack a target in Nebraska, and then drive to Australia and attack a target there, since you’re on Earth anyway”. Except it’s even worse, because you have to match both position and velocity. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198/25 "2020-09-28T02:07:04Z")
But this isn’t just any old rocket ship. It’s the _Space Force_. Hoorah. Or booyah? Can’t remember. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-force-in-action/921198.md?page=1)