Satellite Countermeasures

A pet project of Space-Flight Prophet Wernher von Braun and his disciples is the creation of an artificial satellite revolving in an orbit 1,000 miles above the earth. Such a satellite would circle the globe every two hours, peeking behind all frontiers. If the nation that operated the satellite felt a need for military action, Von Braun's followers say, it could pulverize any other nation with atom-armed guided missiles shot down from space.

Last week a powerful argument against the military value of such a satellite station was presented at a Manhattan meeting of the American Rocket Society. Said London-born Physics Professor L. H. (for Llewellyn Hilleth) Thomas of Columbia: to destroy a satellite would be comparatively easy, and it would cost much less than to place one in its orbit.

Dr. Thomas does not propose to shoot a missile directly at the satellite. A hit would be unlikely. Instead, he thinks, the attacking power should shoot a smallish rocket into the satellite's orbit, but in the opposite direction. The rocket (estimated cost: $1,000,000) would be launched when the satellite was on the far side of the earth. When still a quarter revolution (7,792 miles) away from the approaching satellite, its warhead would burst.

The warhead would contain only a mixture of weak gunpowder and fine particles of lead or steel. The particles would spread into a cloud, which would continue moving in the orbit. By the time the cloud reached the satellite, it would-be 70,000 ft. in diameter--so large that the satellite would be almost sure to pass through it. The particles would be thinly spread, but Dr. Thomas figures that at least one in a million would hit the satellite.

How large must the particles be? Dr. Thomas, an expert on ballistics, points out that their speed when they hit the satellite would be about 46,000 ft. per sec. (31,000 m.p.h.). At this enormous, meteorlike speed, he figures, a particle only five-thousandths of an inch in diameter would punch through the satellite's skin. Since each pound of metal contains more than a million such particles, a warhead weighing 8,000 Ibs. would punch 8.000 holes in the satellite station. The deadly little particles would be moving in slightly elliptical orbits around the earth. They would scatter widely, then concentrate again. Each time the damaged satellite circled the earth, it would run into the cloud of particles at the same point in its orbit, get 8,000 more hits, and soon begin to look like a cheese grater.

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