Satellites can send signals to and from a large number of locations on Earth, bypassing the planet’s curvature, which hinders long-distance communications on land.
Private companies are building networks of low-orbit satellites. Even higher is the geostationary satellite, about 36,000 km from Earth. The time geostationary satellites orbit the Earth matches the Earth’s 24-hour rotation, thereby allowing for more seamless civil and military communication without the need to change positions.
Any atomic explosion could affect satellites of other countries. Fast-moving debris can easily damage or destroy spacecraft in unpredictable ways.
Outer space is becoming a field of competition for superpowers. Russia, China, India and the United States have all tested anti-satellite missiles, targeting old spacecraft pieces. The prospect of intervening in space-based communications and the development of techniques to do so increasingly preoccupies military planners. For example, using lasers to “blind” satellites, or developing quantum sensor technology for navigation that does not rely on global positioning satellites.
Electromagnetic pulse
The greatest damage to both the satellite and the Earth was mainly from the electromagnetic pulse that the nuclear explosion created. The effect would be similar to a natural geomagnetic storm caused by the Sun.
Strong electromagnetic radiation has the ability to destroy electronic circuits in satellites, disabling a series of computing and communications infrastructure on the ground. Not to mention, power fluctuations in the network will lead to widespread power outages.
Next, radioactive particles created by the orbital explosion spread across the globe at high altitudes. However, the possibility of humans being exposed to radiation is much lower than from an above-ground nuclear explosion.
High-altitude nuclear explosions carried out by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962, before an agreement to ban atmospheric weapons testing, demonstrated the potential impact of this type of weaponry.
The 1.45-megaton Starfish H bomb exploded over the Pacific Ocean, disrupting electricity and telephone services in Hawaii and damaging several satellites in orbit.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, attended by the US, Russia and China, banned the deployment of nuclear weapons in space. Accordingly, the parties commit not to put into Earth’s orbit “any object carrying nuclear weapons”, “not to place nuclear weapons on celestial bodies or to place such weapons in outer space in any form.” What kind of food?” However, the agreement does not mention firing nuclear warheads from earth.
