Defense systems in space need to be... in space.

I don't think people are looking at this the right way. They need to be inaccessible to terrestrial and air weapons, have lower latency, not be dependent on power plants, etc.

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iso1631 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Far easier for someone like Iran or China or the US to take out an LEO satellite than an underground data centre, or even a surface on in the case of DCs in US or China.

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sublinear 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's also pretty easy to launch another one into orbit to replace it? I'm not sure I understand what you mean. We can have all these options simultaneously. The easiest targets are where the faster paced more offensive action is going to be.

People have been talking about waging war in space for many decades now. All the arguments for and against it were made a very long time ago, and it was decided it's a hell of a lot better that way. Even a nuclear blast in orbit is more tolerable.

Space superiority is just too damn appealing as the next frontier after land, air, and sea where we've been stuck in stalemate for a while. It's perfectly natural we go to space for this, including the datacenters.

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ericmay 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I don’t think Iran has the capability to shoot down LEO satellites. Kind of weird to loop them in with China here other than China helping Iran.

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iso1631 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

You need about 2,500m/s delta V to reach LEO altitude. Iranian long range rockets are well in that range.

It's thus far easier for Iran to hit an LEO DC than one in Colorado

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ericmay 2 days ago | parent [-]

Are you suggesting for a fact that Iran as the guidance and targeting systems to identify specific LEO objects, and fire missiles at those targets with accuracy?

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iso1631 2 days ago | parent [-]

I'm saying that it's far easier for them to take out an LEO satellite than an underground data centre, or even a surface one, in the centre of the US.

Are you saying it's not?

	▲	ericmay 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm saying I don't think Iran has the capability and the difference in capabilities between America and China on one hand, and Iran on the other is so different that I'm perplexed as to why they would even be mentioned in the same sentence. I'm actually not even sure your suggestion is true. Theoretically they don't need to launch a missile and could attempt to infiltrate a data center instead. They're secure but not that secure against a determined enemy with any amount of real training.

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lxgr 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Iran has a space program capable of launching LEO satellites.

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ericmay 2 days ago | parent [-]

Launching LEO satellites is a different capability than shooting down LEO satellites.

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wolvoleo a day ago | parent [-]

Launching something into orbit is much harder than intercepting something because to intercept you don't need to reach orbital velocities. You can just go up and boom. The velocity of the target does the rest. Tracking it really isn't such a hard thing these days.

	▲	ericmay a day ago \| parent [-]
		It’s not a hard thing, but you still have to have the capability to track objects and design a rocket with the capability to hit that object. These aren’t capabilities Iran has. Certainly not anymore.

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RobotToaster 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

That's true, but they're also very vulnerable to ground based LASERs.