Word: orbited
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Nonetheless, the U.S.S.R. is not exactly a backwater when it comes to computers. Its scientists, many of whom are top notch by international standards, have built large machines that are powerful and accurate enough to guide cosmonauts into orbit. The military has many weapons that incorporate advanced computer technology, some of it stolen or copied from Western nations. The Soviets have lagged far behind the West in developing smaller computers that are used in offices and factories. They have been unable to master the precision manufacturing techniques needed to mass-produce computers. Says Vico Henriques, head of the Washington-based...
Boost-phase interception would be carried out by low-orbit satellites firing rockets out of pods. A rocket would accelerate to the vicinity of a rising missile, then release a homing vehicle that would be guided by sensors and thrusters to a head-on collision with the missile. But as many as 20,000 rockets orbiting aboard many hundreds of satellites might be required to keep enough within range of Soviet launch sites at all times to fend off a full- scale missile onslaught...
...fired into the upper atmosphere. Each rocket would release a swarm of so- called smart rocks--vehicles powered by little thrusters and guided by tiny sensors--to hit warheads and decoys in space. An alternative is to fire the smart rocks out of devices called rail guns placed in orbit. The rail guns use a burst of electric current to accelerate the smart rocks along a rail. One problem is sheer numbers: immense swarms of smart rocks would be needed to hit warheads and decoys indiscriminately. The other option, picking out the warheads from the decoys, would require rocks that...
Other requirements, according to Fletcher: "The computers must be able to operate in a nuclear environment and must be hardened to survive radiation and shock. To keep crucial command, control and communications capabilities out of the fray, some of the computers would be placed in high orbit halfway to the moon." Humans would make the key strategic decisions in advance, determining under what conditions the missile defense would start firing, and devise a computer system that could translate those decisions into a program. In the end the defensive response would be out of human hands: it would be activated...
Finally, the Soviets could attack a Star Wars system directly. Orbiting satellites are vastly easier than missiles or warheads to track and draw a bead on. Just two possibilities: the Soviets could orbit a "space mine" that would blow up near an American satellite and destroy it, or a countersatellite that would discharge a cloud of pellets, capable at orbital speeds of piercing steel, or even beach sand, which could pit and disable laser mirrors. American satellites might be defended against such attacks. But once that kind of cycle begins, says William Shuler, coordinator of S.D.I. research at Livermore...