X-37B

[kerbiloid]

Just btw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prompt_Global_Strike#Background

Spoiler

 

[mikegarrison]

That's quite obviously not what the X-37B does.

Anyway, it's pretty stupid to have some kind of conventional global strike package that you can launch if the other side has no way of knowing whether or not it is nuclear. Basically, if you are a nuclear power and someone launches a bunch of missiles or planes or whatever at you and there is a possibility they might be nuclear, you have to assume that they are nuclear and respond in kind.

[DDE]

8 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

Anyway, it's pretty stupid to have some kind of conventional global strike package that you can launch if the other side has no way of knowing whether or not it is nuclear. Basically, if you are a nuclear power and someone launches a bunch of missiles or planes or whatever at you and there is a possibility they might be nuclear, you have to assume that they are nuclear and respond in kind.

This is the standard line of thought - so standard that Eugene Messner, colonel of the Russian Imperial Army, was able to independently arrive at it in exile in the early 1960s (and MAD, and modern insurgency-centric warfare).

However, the desire to smite petty enemies from afar keeps pushing people (mostly the USG, but I've heard rumblings from the Russian side) towards nothing less than conventionally-tipped ICBMs, of which the most advanced proposal was Conventional Trident. It seems to have instead morphed into the W76-2-tipped Trident ostensibly designed to deter Russian tactical nuclear blackmail ...with matching tactical nuclear blackmail.

However, the people furthest down this road are actually the Chinese, who have a large number of "regionally strategic" missiles with an express dual (nuclear and conventional) mission.

Edited January 15, 2022 by DDE

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, DDE said:

However, the people furthest down this road are actually the Chinese, who have a large number of "regionally strategic" missiles with an express dual (nuclear and conventional) mission.

They just have read the wiki better than others and thus know what to do.

[DDE]

8 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

They just have read the wiki better than others and thus know what to do.

They have achieved such rare and tremendous enlightenment that they actually read the problem before attempting to come up with a solution.

[tater]

 

Cool pic, too:

 

[mikegarrison]

Oh hey, I haven't checked in on this for a while. I remember thinking that maybe they would bring it back sooner this time, but I guess not.

[SunlitZelkova]

The X-37B is no longer the "world's only reusable spaceplane", because China has successfully flown its reusable spaceplane.

At the same time, the X-37B is still the "world's only reusable spaceplane", because China hasn't reflown its reusable spaceplane yet 

[kerbiloid]

The China's one is reusable, the Boeing one is reused.

[magnemoe]

On 1/15/2022 at 10:49 AM, DDE said:

This is the standard line of thought - so standard that Eugene Messner, colonel of the Russian Imperial Army, was able to independently arrive at it in exile in the early 1960s (and MAD, and modern insurgency-centric warfare).

However, the desire to smite petty enemies from afar keeps pushing people (mostly the USG, but I've heard rumblings from the Russian side) towards nothing less than conventionally-tipped ICBMs, of which the most advanced proposal was Conventional Trident. It seems to have instead morphed into the W76-2-tipped Trident ostensibly designed to deter Russian tactical nuclear blackmail ...with matching tactical nuclear blackmail.

However, the people furthest down this road are actually the Chinese, who have a large number of "regionally strategic" missiles with an express dual (nuclear and conventional) mission.

US and Russia has had an agreement to not develop and deploy medium range ballistic missiles so the US has an 300 km range tactical missile and the ICBM, at the time of this treaty smart ballistic missiles was not seen practical.   
China was not part of this agreement so has an upper leg. 

This is not related to the X-37 who is not relevant as an weapon system, but could be used to spy. Its most likely used for technology you want to return to earth after use and you don't want to bring onto the IIS there many nations including Russia has access. 
 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Just now, magnemoe said:

most likely used for technology you want to return to earth after use

So... Presumably it has a 'some disassembly required' ability?  Snipping antenna or solar panels to recover the good stuff? 

[Beccab]

There's also that old idea about using a spacecraft to blind enemies satellites - which in the 70s was literally going to the satellite and spraying black paint over it

[tater]

42 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

This is not related to the X-37 who is not relevant as an weapon system, but could be used to spy. Its most likely used for technology you want to return to earth after use and you don't want to bring onto the IIS there many nations including Russia has access. 

Instead of making a sat that requires design, funding, construction, and it flies 10 years after it is first thought of, you can put the sensors in X-37B, use them, then when it lands put a brand new sensor in there and fly again. How many megapixels is your phone camera from 3 years ago vs the best phone camera now?

That's my guess, it allows relatively rapid sensor iteration. use off the shelf parts... of they fail, bring it down, and replace the camera/whatever.

[DDE]

58 minutes ago, Beccab said:

There's also that old idea about using a spacecraft to blind enemies satellites - which in the 70s was literally going to the satellite and spraying black paint over it

Russian carbon nanoparticle "chaff" grenades for spacecraft defense have been patented in the mid-2010s. It's still a cutting-edge concept.

[kerbiloid]

MOL and later ones had scopes 2 m in diameter.
That's like X-37B itself.

[mikegarrison]

We've had this discussion before, but I tend to think the simple answer is that they are mostly sending up mystery goo and exposing it to space for a while to see what happens.

[tater]

31 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

We've had this discussion before, but I tend to think the simple answer is that they are mostly sending up mystery goo and exposing it to space for a while to see what happens.

yeah, but diminishing returns with each test result transmission

 

[kerbiloid]

Maybe it's an ominous eugenic experiment?

They send an astronaut without a suit, training him breathe with vacuum longer and longer each time?

The purpose is to develop a lunar human race needing no colonies or terraforming?

Like Kerbals.

Edited July 8, 2022 by kerbiloid

[mikegarrison]

Almost 900 days now in the current mission. Come home, X-37B! We miss you!

[kerbiloid]

Isn't it to the date the long-lasting "returnable" (not expendable) spacecraft if sum all its flight durations?

Shuttles were staying in space just for a couple of weeks, so even in total they unlikely spent years in space.

Capsule ships also weren't in orbit longer than a year.

Edited October 24, 2022 by kerbiloid

[sevenperforce]

5 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Isn't it to the date the long-lasting "returnable" (not expendable) spacecraft if sum all its flight durations?

Shuttles were staying in space just for a couple of weeks, so even in total they unlikely spent years in space.

Capsule ships also weren't in orbit longer than a year.

Depends on whether you count sample-return missions:

• The Genesis mission spent a little over three years in space collecting solar wind particles before re-entering Earth's atmosphere. It crash-landed due to a drogue failure but some of the samples were usable.
• The Stardust mission collected particles from the coma of the Wild 2 comet; its mission duration was over 6 years before successfully returning to Earth.
• Hayabusa took a little over 7 years to return from its sampling mission of  25143 Itokawa, and Hayabusa2 took 6 years and 3 days to do the same thing with 162173 Ryugu.
•  OSIRIS-REx is expected to take just over 7 years to complete its sample return from 101955 Bennu.

 Of course none of those can be reflown like X-37B or the Shuttle.

[tater]

It really is a pretty remarkable vehicle.

I'd love to see a crew version of it (might need to be bigger).

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

10 hours ago, tater said:

might need to be bigger

Maybe not a whole lot bigger... 

 

 

[kerbiloid]

The idea of placing the pilot cabin inside the scoop is absolutely brilliant.

[sevenperforce]

11 hours ago, tater said:

It really is a pretty remarkable vehicle.

I'd love to see a crew version of it (might need to be bigger).

Hard to come up with a workable abort system for a spaceplane, though.

10 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

The idea of placing the pilot cabin inside the scoop is absolutely brilliant.

Clearly helps with shock point attachment.