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Project Pluto (nuclear propelled, nuclear weapons delivery system)
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this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
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That's another favorite of mine as well.
And I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were a few sets of them in orbit right now.
~~Nah, the cost currently would be on the scale of the gdp of the US. We can say with 100% certainty that there are none currently. The closest we could possibly have is simply a kinetic kill satellite.~~ The cost to ship even a single tunsten telephone pole would be massive, not to mention the cost of shipping a hidden satellite capable of remotely launching them with precision eithout having to worry about it getting hacked or discovered
Edit: evidently not, see below
The space shuttle had a 60ft long bay, with a LEO payload capacity of 27,500 kg to LEO, 16,050 kg to the ISS, or 10,890 kg to geostationary orbit.
https://www.nasa.gov/reference/the-space-shuttle/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle
Tungsten has a density of 19.254 g/cm3
A 30ft tall, 1ft diameter cylinder is about 667,199 cm3. Made of tungsten, it would be 13,343.99 kg, or 13 metric tons. In 1995 the price per metric ton of tungsten was $20,674.11 after adjusting for inflation, or $268,763.43 for the entire rod.
https://www.metalary.com/tungsten-price/
Please check my math on this if you like, as I am very sleep deprived.
But the point is, it is well within the payload capacity of the tech we had, and the military budget. And the U.S. military would have absolutely been willing and able to hijack a ride on a shuttle, when the shuttle program was active.
Nah, too lazy to check the math, but ill stand corrected. Thanks, i hate it!
Fucking mood.
Take what I said with a massive grain of salt though. Even if I didn't oops a digit, the number of launches the military could have hijacked for this is very limited, and the number of them very limited.
If there are any in orbit, I'd wager its less than a dozen or so.