Space Weapons and Technology

The idea of weapons in space is a topic that keeps resurfacing throughout the years. Ever since the moon walking proved space travel was possible there developed many theories and facts about what can happen beyond our atmosphere.

The ideas of weapons stationed or launched from a planetary orbit were once thoughts only held by science fiction writers. But how much turned out to be simply fiction? At the moment there are many ideas at work about what kinds of weapons can be developed. What emerged was the conception of whether or not these weapons would even be a reasonable undertaking for any country to attempt. A particle beam weapon that would be mounted on a satellite with the ability to fire an energy blast at target normally unreachable by land or air based means, there already are satellites that monitor missile sites all over the world.

A beam weapon would give these satellites offensive abilities by being able to position itself above the target and fire with pin point accuracy. But such a weapon would require a massive amount of energy to be generated, possible needing multiple power plants installed directly into the satellite, making them large and vulnerable to being destroyed by an enemy, not to mention the financial debt it would cost to create such an object. Two more reliable weapons proposed are thunder rods and asteroid bombs. Thunder rods are long, slender kinetic energy devices that are tossed from orbit and the high velocity they would generate could cause largely destructive effects. Asteroid bombs would literally use a device to harvest a passing asteroid and plummet it into the planet. However, only thunder rods are a fiscally acceptable method of weaponry. Scientists claim that any nation that possesses nuclear abilities would indulge in space weaponry as a purely academic venture.