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Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by cal5k on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @01:22PM (#18504792)
"We've fired the missiles, sir"

"Excellent... when do they hit?"

"According to our calculations... ohhh about 6 weeks from now"

Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by isostatic on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @01:28PM (#18504828)
Revenge is a dish best served cold.

I was thinking how Musk could do that. Launch some tungstan rods into a highly eliptical orbit, small thruster + control pack on them to adjust their orbit when required. When it's out at say 300,000k+ fire the engine for a few seconds, adjusting the orbit so it will crash into the chosen target a few days from now. The high apogee means not a lot of power to change orbit to collision, and almost impossible to detect. It would likely appear to be an asteroid hit.

Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by ben_w on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:13PM (#18505180)
I’ve looked at this idea myself. At current cost per kg to LEO launch and kW/kg solar, even if you could totally ignore reaction mass (I dunno, invent a ramscoop for van Allen belts or something), it only becomes cost competitive with dynamite after a few years.
Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by DuskStar on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @05:34PM (#18506649)
Dynamite doesn't come with a delivery mechanism though, which might change the equation a little.
Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by rripken on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:05PM (#18505110)
You may like Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".
Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by patrickg_zill on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:04PM (#18505105)
It's rumored that the US military has a "Rod of God" satellite. No way to confirm its existence of course.
Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by thrill on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:38PM (#18505367)
That would certainly raise the level of Bitcoin blackmail.
Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by Tade0 on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:14PM (#18505195)
I think his guy is in that Tesla Roadster in space.