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Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
Actually GeoSync orbit is filling up fast.
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It's cluttered, but hardly in any danger of filling up. Even if we had a satellite in every geosynchronius orbital point, without taking into account the satellites that we decommmision and replace with better satellites, we'd be fine.
I hate to descend into valley-girl rhetoric, but this planet will only ever support, like, 10 billion humans in the forseeable future, and there's like, eleventy-trillion GS orbital space. It'll be fine.
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Pfft Civilian Satellites...
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Scoff if you like, but it will be the private sector that defines and expands space exploration and exploitation, as it always has been. Governments squander vast amounts of time and resources screwing around in space to discover the mysteries behind dead, useless rocks and stuff that is so damn far away that it will never be of any practical use. Worthless as their efforts are, they can occasionally be co-opted for some kind of productive use, though the occasions are few and far between.
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They seriously built this thing! Not only that but they thought that NASA was going to try and shoot it down! How F*ing awesome is that?
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It's pretty awesome. It's also pretty useless, for reasons described in the article. Space superiority is a nice ideal for any nation, but it just doesn't work, at least for now. The resources required to maintain a network of space battlestations, whether automated or manned, are entirely too steep. There's also the consideration of other nations' reactions. Being able to bomb any location on the planet really doesn't mean much if everyone hates you and won't trade with you or seeks to undermine you because you're threatning them from orbit. The time will come when orbital weapons platforms have a role to play, but it won't be for a while yet.