Will SpaceX Make “Rods From God” and Other Future-Weapons a Reality?

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Posted on 12/27/2024 4:58:22 AM PST by marktwain

The weapons system “Rods from God” is being made possible by Elon Musk and breakthrough engineering technologies created as part of SpaceX.  In the 1950s, the idea of a space weapon system known as Thor was thought up. It consisted of Tungsten rods, about a foot in diameter and 20 feet long. It contains a guidance system and a way to launch the projectile from orbit to a precise location on Earth. Over time, the name was changed to Rods from God. A rod from god would kinetically deliver energy to a target equivalent to roughly 11 tons of TNT. It would be extremely difficult to defend against. It could attack surface targets with extreme precision, by some estimates, about 15 minutes from launch.

Rods from God has the potential to offer a much cheaper and more usable alternative to nuclear weapons. It could be the 21st-century equivalent of the 19th-century warship used for gunboat diplomacy.

The concept has been investigated by the Department of Defense several times over the last 60 years. The nextbigfuture.com, by Brian Wang, reconsidered the concept in 2018 with a look at possible cost reductions by SpaceX.  Wang noted the major impediment to implementing such a weapon is the cost of taking it to orbit. Another major problem is ensuring a precise guidance system.

SpaceX, with its reusable Super Heavy Booster and Starship, along with Starlink, has the potential to solve both problems. The initial rod from god (Thor) weapon was projected at a mass of 8,000 kilograms, about 17,000 lbs. SpaceX and Starship are projected to reduce cost to orbit to $12 to $17 per pound.

With SpaceX, the cost of orbiting rods from god are reduced from hundreds of millions of dollars per rod in the

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1 posted on 12/27/2024 4:58:22 AM PST by marktwain

To: marktwain

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