One misconception which must be repeatedly addressed is the use of ground- based lasers to "shoot" objects in orbit. It is not now possible to predict how sufficient energy could be transmitted through the dispersive and attenuating effects of the atmosphere to overcome passive defensive measures on spacecraft and inflict structural damage, although it is possible that technological advances in the next two or three decades may overcome this difficulty. Even so, it is likely that ground-based lasers would be unable to damage objects in high orbits, including geosynchronous. Space-based lasers or particle beam weapons would be required to attain the energy levels needed to inflict structural damage at significant range. These and other misperceptions about the vulnerability of SPS elements are summarized in Table 4-2. This table is not exhaustive, but it presents and refutes the most common misperceptions about vulnerabilities which have arisen during the last few years. 4.7 Vulnerability/Safeguard Matrix The potential vulnerabilities of the Satellite Power System are summarized in Table 4-3, at the end of this section, along with safeguards to be discussed in Section 5. In contrast to the threat matrix, the vulnerability matrix does not include various military adapters which could be added to the Reference System, since analysis of the vulnerabilities of such military systems is outside the scope and intent of this study. Several of the potential vulnerabilities listed are followed by a minus sign in parenthesis (-) to indicate that these assaults on SPS are considered either infeasible or so ineffective that they are extremely unlikely to be deployed. As in the threat matrix, a zero ("0") indicates that no plausible vulnerability of the type indicated by the column heading has been identified for that subsystem of the SPS. Two institutional vulnerabilities (espionage and harassment) and one mixed institutional-technological vulnerability ("strategic" vulnerability of the SPS, discussed in Section 4.8 below) do not appear in this matrix since they apply to the system as a whole rather than to any particular system or subsystem element.
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