The Nazi Plan For A Mile-Wide 'Sun Gun' To Fry Cities From Space

The mile wide mirror would be able to focus the power of the sun onto a target on Earth

The Incredible Nazi Plans For A Mile-Wide 'Sun Gun' To Fry Cities From Space -- Daily Mail

* Giant space mirror would have concentrated the sun's rays on Earth
* German army would use it to 'burn enemy cities' or 'boil part of an ocean'
* Would also contain a manned space station complete with gardens

It sounds like something only a Bond villain would propose, but the Nazis planned a mile-wide ‘space gun’ powered by the sun.

The giant mirror could be used to focus the sun on a target – like the magnifying glasses used by children to create fire.

A long-forgotten article from Life magazine in 1945 revealed how ‘US Army technical experts came up with the astonishing fact that German scientists had seriously planned to build a “sun gun”’.

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My Comment: Forget about the problems in putting such a "weapon" in space .... but would such a weapon work?

War In Space Is No Longer Science Fiction

The aurora created by the Starfish Prime detonation lingers over Honolulu on July 9, 1962. (Wikimedia Commons)

Give Peace a Chance—in Space -- Armin Rosen, The Atlantic

The White House Death Star petition was a joke, but the prospect of war in outer space is anything but.

"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea," a military academy commandant voiced by Willem Dafoe intones toward the end of a now-classic 1997 episode of The Simpsons. "They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain." This was meant as a joke, but the latter half of that statement would soon prove eerily prescient when India and Pakistan battled over Kashmir's Siachen glacier -- a strategically irrelevant ice field sitting over 18,000 feet above sea level -- during the Kargil War in 1999. For now, the prospect of military conflict in outer space still resides in the realm of dystopia or absurdity, to the point that a White House petition demanding the construction of a Star Wars-style "Death Star" could be treated as a harmless prank. In rejecting the petition this week, the White House rightly wondered why a debt-strapped U.S. government would spend $850 quadrillion on a weapons system "with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship." Thankfully, the prospect of an orbital space-to-earth battlestation doesn't even need to be treated seriously.

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My Comment: As if we have the money to spend on space based weapon systems .... but military strategists are doing what they are suppose to do which is to contemplate such a future. It is the politicians ... both here and abroad .... who must make sure that it does not happen.

The Race To Develop A Robotic Military Space Shuttle

X-37B. Air Force

Russia Joins The US And China In Spaceplane Dream -- The First Post

General’s hint raises stakes in the race to develop a robotic military space shuttle.

The prospect of a return to the heady days of the space race has been raised after a Russian space chief hinted that his researchers are working on their own version of America's Boeing X-37B - also known as the top secret space warplane.

General-Lieutenant Oleg Ostapenko, Russia's Space Troops Commander, told RIA Novosti: "Something has been done along these lines, but as to whether we will use it, only time will tell."

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More News On The Race To Build Robotic Space Planes

Russians at work on military spaceplane -- Flight Global
Can Russia rival the X-37B space plane with its own robotic spacecraft? -- Christian Science Monitor
Russia Working on Mysterious Space Plane of Its Own -- The Danger Room
Russia is Building its Own Military Space Plane to Match the Mysterious X-37B -- Popular Science
Russia Building Its Own Super-Mysterious Robotic Space Plane -- Gizmodo
Russia has 'secret space warplane' to match US X-37B -- The Register

China ratchets up military tension ahead of Hu visit -- The First Post
While the world watched the J-20 test, China was 'deleting posts about a space fighter' -- News.com.au
China tests unmanned spacecraft -- Voice of Russia

Air Force Primes X-37B Space Plane for Next Secret Mission -- Space.com
Air Force's second X-37 space plane nears launch -- Space Flight Now

Are China and Russia building their own space planes? -- Dvice
Space: A Dangerous Place To Be -- Strategy Page
Space Awareness -- David Axe, The Diplomat

An Agreement To Limit U.S. Space Related Weapons In the Works

U.S., EU Eye Anti-Satellite Weapons Pact -- Washington Times

Limits raise worries.

The Obama administration is negotiating with the European Union on an agreement limiting the use of anti-satellite weapons, a move that some critics say could curb U.S. development of space weapons in general.

Three congressional staffers told The Washington Times that Pentagon and intelligence analysts said in a briefing Monday that the administration is looking to sign on to the European Union‘s Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities.

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My comment: Instead of being honest in stating that their real intent is to limit U.S. space related weapons .... the White House is trying to shift the responsibility to the Europeans by maneuvering them into a treaty that would essentially do the same thing. The Russians are also (I am sure) pleased with this development.

Space Arms Treaty Not Likely In The Near Future

US Says Space Arms Control Treaty A Bridge Too Far -- Global Times

The US said Tuesday that a space arms control treaty was unlikely to emerge in the near future, as there are still flaws in drafts being tabled.

"I don't see any near-term progress on a space arms control treaty, but again I think there is a lot of shared interest between the US, Russia, China and others on providing space stability," said Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of Verification, Compliance and Implementation.

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Update #1: Space arms control treaty unlikely in near-term: US -- AFP
Update #2: U.S. signals flexibility on space weapons treaty -- Reuters

My Comment: Global Times is right .... for the Americans (in an election year) this is a bridge too far.

Getting Ready To Get 'Space Weapons' Wrong

Photo from The Danger Room

From The Hudson Institute:

The Obama Administration took office promising – on the White House website, no less – to pursue “a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites.” It apparently had second thoughts, however, and soon pulled this reference. (This was neither the first nor the last campaign promise that Barack Obama let slip quietly away, but it caught my eye nonetheless.) In the late spring of 2009, however, it flip-flopped anew, and agreed to Chinese and Russian demands that the U.N. begin discussions on preventing an “arms race in outer space.” This is not technically the same thing as beginning “negotiations” on such an agreement, but the White House has reversed longstanding U.S. policy and allowed the U.N.’s Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva to slip its leash and start bounding off in pursuit of this goal.

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My Comment: A different view on a topic that will affect us all.

Is Space War Possible?

From Foreign Policy Blog:

In today's cover story, Mike Moore reflects on yesterday's satellite collision and describes one nightmare scenario for space conflict:

In a time of high tension, someone preemptively smashes spy satellites in low-earth orbits, creating tens of thousands of metal chunks and shards. Debris-tracking systems are overwhelmed, and low-earth orbits become so cluttered with metal that new satellites cannot be safely launched. Satellites already in orbit die of old age or are killed by debris strikes.

The global economy, which is greatly dependent on a variety of assets in space, collapses. The countries of the world head back to a 1950s-style way of life, but there are billions more people on the planet than in the 50s. That's a recipe for malnutrition, starvation, and wars for resources.

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My Comment: There has been competition in space since the beginning. The fact that platforms in space are now used to direct missiles, enabling communications to act instantaneous with drones .... one can make the argument that war in space has been constant since the invasion of Iraq, and that American success is now breeding a new generation of systems.