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Comment by lupusreal | Hacker News Reader

> Stopping China's (highly strategic, military) satellite constellations isn't a "small amount of diplomacy". It's an impossibility.

Put 100k boost-phase interceptors into LEO. Permit them a fixed quota of launches per year, shoot down the rest. Pax Americana.

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Then they'd retaliate in kind, and we'd get nowhere. It's certain they have that capability, or can develop it.

We stand to lose a lot more from a space war, right now, than anyone else. We (US/west) hold the lion's share of space commerce and orbital launch capacity. "Earth orbit is free and open for everyone" is more than Star Trek idealism—it's a precedent we've set that benefits us, especially.

We've seen Russians shoot their own satellites, officially to ensure no large object re-entry (or some such nonsense, I don't remember), but I'm 10000% that it's a demonstration to the United States. If the Russians can do it, I'm sure China either already can or is very close to there. It's time to stop pretending that US can enforce rules by fiat without ramifications that scale from getting space assets blown up to a global war.

The world is already dangerously unstable and here we are discussing new ideas on how to make it more so.

you mean total nuclear war

Once a boost-phase interception constellation is demonstrated, nuclear war would be infeasible. They could try it with cruise missiles but that would only ensure their own destruction. They could try launching their own BMD constellation but that can be denied by the first.

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