Aurora 4x
Off Topic => Space News => Topic started by: Mel Vixen on October 13, 2013, 08:52:58 AM
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Not new but a bit aurora related:
back in 1987 Russia was building actual "space weapons". The satellite, a massive 100ton Structure would have been armed with a turreted 1 Megawatt Co2 Laser capable of destroying US Satellites (which didnt exist at that time) and maybe missiles. Sadly/luckely the teststart went sour after a maneuvering failure of the tech demonstrator after it seperated from the energia Rocket.
Bear in mind that the ISS weights around 400 tons. Rumor has it also that the ISS reboosting and generator component "Zarya" is indeed a sparepart of the Polyus unit.
further info here:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/16/soviet-laser-satellite
http://www.espacial.org/images/jpg/polyus.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_%28spacecraft%29
Sadly the longer more detailed article from Ars technica isnt available anymore.