• Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      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.

      • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        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

        • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          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.

            • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 month ago

              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.

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yep, in levels of “coolness” or scale, it goes: fission bombs, fusion bombs, cluster fusion bombs, rods from god, nychro-dyson beam, black hole gun, then black hole bomb. Possibly vacuum decay as the strongest possible weapon.