Anti-satellite weapon test?, Is this true? Options

[Thu]

According to this link, China fired a missile to destroy an orbiting weather satellite last week: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_Tras...e_Test_999.html

I am curios about what kind of projectile could be used? A "smart" one with on board guidance system or just a dumb one? How close did the "killer satellite" came to the target?

Does anybody have an idea?

[djellison]

Just thinking in terms of 'impact window' - i.e. the time taken for the target to cover it's own size in terms of distance - the variable that identifies how accurate something has to be to hit something rushing past - not totally analogous ( you could drive 'down' the velocity vector for instance ) - but it gives you a sense of the scale of the problem.

Car - 4.3 metres - 26 m/sec - window is 0.165 seconds.
Jumbo Jet - 57 metres - 223 m/sec - window is 0.255 seconds ( this is why a jumbo 'looks' so slow in the sky - it covers it's own length slower than a small car rushing past). F22 - .030 seconds.

Satellite - 3 metre sized bus - 7500 m/sec - window is 0.0004 seconds

i.e. stood watching the thing fly past - you've got to be 412 times more accurate hitting a spacecraft than a car doing 60 mph. 637 times more accurate than hitting a flying jumbo - and 75 times more accurate than hitting an F22 raptor.

It's a big ask - I don't know how hard it actually is - but this isn't "let's modify a sidewinder' type thing.

Doug