Re:The Argument Against Terraforming Mars (2016)
by Retric on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @02:19PM
(#14508644)
It's not that hard to fake what is and is not a bomb in space. Consider their is no air resistance so use an inflatable balloon which may or may not have a bomb inside. For 10,000 kg you could probably send up 100,000+ fake bombs which would all have slightly different vectors making hitting them all very hard. Further, if you use something mechanical vs inflation it's not obvious if something was shot down or not.
Worse, the attacker may feel they can use something like that while shooting down any responses.
I don't think it would be nuclear though. Nuclear bombs are delicate devices, the only reason they work on Earth is because they hit too fast to intercept.
Interplanetary war will have at least 1 month long trips between the two planets unless we see some insane tech breakthroughs. A war fleet would be pretty easy to spot and blast out of the sky, as would any missiles launched planet to planet. Hitting something at the insane speeds of ICBMs becomes much easier when you have days to aim.