Space Warfare and Accidents
Arthur C. Clarke wrote an article called, "War and Peace in the Space Age," in which he suggested that an artificial satellite in retrograde orbit could use "a bucket of nails" to destroy an SDI (anti-warhead) satellite. This premise was ridiculed on account of the vastness of space and the low probability of an encounter.
Nevertheless, a satellite in retrograde orbit could pose a major hazard to other satellites, especially if it was placed in the Clarke belt, where geostationary satellites orbit. This risk highlights the fragility of communication satellites and the importance of international cooperation in preventing space collisions due to negligence or malice.
Read more about this topic: Artificial Satellites In Retrograde Orbit
Famous quotes containing the words space, warfare and/or accidents:
“At first thy little being came:
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
The space between, is but an hour,
The frail duration of a flower.”
—Philip Freneau (1752–1832)
“Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one’s heart; but death is a splendid thing—a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)