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karl2025 t1_j5aygi0 wrote

Reply to comment by SeanG909 in TIL The famous "rods from god" concept of a space-based weapons system of orbiting tungsten rods was developed by science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle. by BitterFuture

The United States is upgrading its nuclear arsenal at about $20 million a warhead. In order to get an impactor with, let's say, 100kt of kinetic energy (decent medium sized yield) you'd need somewhere around 160,000 kg of material smacking into the Earth at reentry speeds. That's three launches of a Falcon Heavy to get the material into LEO at a price tag of almost $300mil.

Nukes are way easier.

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