Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Captain_Hadock t1_it6jjcj wrote

The reason it doesn't sound destructive is because you missed the part where the debris are being released in a retrograde GEO-altitude orbit (which isn't harder to reach than regular GEO). Which means they would still follow a GEO-like orbital path, but going the opposite way (impact velocity will be 6 km/s or 13400 mph).

3

mithie007 t1_it6qu94 wrote

Yup. Thank you. That's what I was missing

Yeah if you can get a bunch of ball bearings going retrograde, you will rip up the entire orbit like a shotgun blast that keeps on going.

2