4.5.2 The LEO Base The living and working quarters and the propellant depots at the LEO base are vulnerable to hypervelocity pellets, such as deployed by a sounding rocket from the surface of Earth just in front of the base. Since the Earth’s magnetosphere provides significant protection from cosmic radiation and solar flares, the living quarters are unlikely to be heavily shielded. Particle beam weapons or clouds of high energy electrons from distant nuclear explosions in space could thus inflict ionizing radiation on SPS workers at the LEO base. If the power system is based on photovoltaic arrays, the power system would be sensitive to nuclear weapon effects. Chemical or biological agents could be smuggled aboard in cargo or baggage. 4.5.3 The GEO Base The power system (presumably photovoltaic) is sensitive to nuclear weapon effects. The propellant depots are vulnerable to hypervelocity pellets, and the living and working quarters are sensitive to chemical and biological agents. (Radiation shielding against cosmic rays, solar flares, and the outer fringes of the Van Allen belts would reduce the effectiveness of hypervelocity pellets.) 4.5.4 Power Satellites The photovoltaic arrays and the transmitter arrays are sensitive to electromagnetic pulse effects resulting from nuclear explosions, even at great distances. The living and working quarters are vulnerable to chemical and biological warfare. The power buses, tension cables supporting the photovoltaic blankets, slip rings in the rotary joint, and brushes in the rotary joint would be fairly easy to damage by mutilation. In the silicon option, gantries carrying annealing lasers would also be attractive targets for mutilation. Mutilation could be carried out by teleoperators equipped with industrial lasers or conventional cutting tools, or by small rockets using conventional high-explosive warheads. Sensors of the attitude control system are vulnerable to laser weapons. These, however, would either have to be near geosynchronous orbit or be of very high power. (In the latter case, they would pose more serious military threats elsewhere.) The large size of the power satellite makes it very difficult to inflict massive damage by conventional weaponry on supporting structure, transmitter array, or photovoltaic blankets. While high-energy lasers or particle beam weapons
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==