Russia has conducted an Anti-satellite weapons test. ISS crew sheltering

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18 points·donohoe··7 comments

More details reported here:

https://news.yahoo.com/dangerous-space-junk-forced-astronaut...

https://www.newsweek.com/astronauts-iss-space-debris-junk-ru...

> Russian astronauts took refuge in the Soyuz MS-18 capsule, while American astronauts went to the Space Crew Dragon capsule.

Each national crew going into their own pod.

Having everyone file into one pod would mean if one gets catastrophic damage, everyone could die. If one makes it, everyone in the other (who survived) can exit the hatch in their suits and make their way over.

Today its some Russian debris. Next time it could just as well be debris from two Starlink satellites colliding.

We need a way to clean this stuff up which from my understanding is practically impossible. It's like collecting a few thousand pingpong balls in the ocean.

> We need a way to clean this stuff up which from my understanding is practically impossible. It's like collecting a few thousand pingpong balls in the ocean.

There are ground-based and space-based options for deorbiting debris, but unfortunately they are "dual use" technologies that could all too easily be used against objects that aren't debris (although not very effectively).

Every billionaire with space capabilitys has a defacto nuke anyway. He who is out of the gravity well, has power over those who downwards dwell.

Any hobo in space with a ion-thruster and a astronomically app, can hold a planet for ransom. Space civilization, has a physics based class system..

But in a case like this, dual use doesn't result in a nuclear bomb exploding. Sure it would suck if a satellite was destroyed but it's not literally the end of the world.

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