Author Topic: Skif orbital laser weapon satellite and the Strategic Defense Initiative  (Read 3164 times)

Online Blackstar

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https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1

Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

The night skies over Kazakhstan lit up on May 15, 1987 as a powerful rocket roared off its pad at the Soviet launch complex at Baikonur. The Energia launch vehicle consisted of a core stage with four engines and four liquid-fueled strap-on booster rockets. A long cylinder mounted on the side of the rocket contained the payload, a massive spacecraft with “Polyus,” or “pole”—as in north or south pole—painted in Russian on its side, and “Mir-2” painted on its front. “Mir” means “peace” in Russian, a name that was possibly advertising, a cover story, or an ironic joke.

The spacecraft’s secret name was “Skif,” which referred to the Scythians, an ancient warrior tribe in central Asia—and the European equivalent of “barbarian.” It was the name the program had used for years.

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

Offline catdlr

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https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1

Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

So the Soviets were inspired by Star Wars "Death Star".
« Last Edit: 06/06/2023 04:58 am by catdlr »
Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Online Blackstar

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https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1

Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

So the Soviets were inspired by Star Wars "Death Star".


Read the rest of the article to find out.

Online laszlo

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https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1

Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

So the Soviets were inspired by Star Wars "Death Star".


Read the rest of the article to find out.

Spoiler alert! The answer is .... (Sorry, I can't do that to Blackstar. The article is a great read, one of his best, well worth the time).

Offline hoku

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The black color of the enclosure/shroud for sure gave Skif a menacing look!

Did anyone figure out why they chose black? Was this the "natural color" of the fairing/shroud, which protected it during launch? Anecdotally this was the first time the Soviets used some composite (carbon fiber?) material rather than metal for (part of?) the fairing.

Online Blackstar

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The black color of the enclosure/shroud for sure gave Skif a menacing look!

Did anyone figure out why they chose black? Was this the "natural color" of the fairing/shroud, which protected it during launch? Anecdotally this was the first time the Soviets used some composite (carbon fiber?) material rather than metal for (part of?) the fairing.

Note that in the video still it was originally white. I don't think that was a mockup, although it could have been.

Online Blackstar

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The article mentions the United States' Zenith Star laser program. Here are some images and a 1989 GAO report about Zenith Star.

Offline hoku

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The article mentions the United States' Zenith Star laser program. Here are some images and a 1989 GAO report about Zenith Star.
... and some more Zenith Star prototype hardware, and a 2-page article from 1987. For a better quality color image of the ITEK LAMP mirror, see Dwayne's post at https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23864.msg2485335#msg2485335

Offline Vahe231991

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The article mentions the United States' Zenith Star laser program. Here are some images and a 1989 GAO report about Zenith Star.
I found this article from a December 1987 issue of the EIR magazine regarding the Zenith Star orbital laser weapon project:
http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1987/eirv14n50-19871218/eirv14n50-19871218_024-zenith_star_an_sdi_demonstration.pdf

Online LittleBird

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The article mentions the United States' Zenith Star laser program. Here are some images and a 1989 GAO report about Zenith Star.
... and some more Zenith Star prototype hardware, and a 2-page article from 1987. For a better quality color image of the ITEK LAMP mirror, see Dwayne's post at https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23864.msg2485335#msg2485335

Thanks for that article, Hoku (and Vahe). I was most intrigued by the description [*] of the phased array laser, as I've said before I'm not an optics person really and I was quite unaware such things existed ... and had done since 70s at least, apparently https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740038252, at least in theory ... and evidently remain of interest, though not  necessarily at 100m scales I hasten to add ! ... https://www.nature.com/articles/nphoton.2016.104 [Edit: I see, on reading properly that the 100m dimension is for a complementary technology, the mirror array---it's not obvious how big the phased array laser idea would need to be-or not to me, anyway-but it seems to be assumed to be the size of a Zenith Star demonstrator.]

As the Duke of Wellington nearly said "I don't know what effect these beams will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me" ;-)

[* for which a second source would be nice if we can find one. The TRW patent suggests the EIR article may be slightly garbled, which wouldn't be entirely surprising:  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88B00443R001500040065-0.pdf]

« Last Edit: 06/08/2023 04:26 am by LittleBird »

Online LittleBird

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[* for which a second source would be nice if we can find one.]

Replying to myself but these two look like enough for the TRW work at least (grabs are from first, thought patent well worth a browse):

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA351530

https://patents.justia.com/patent/4794345
« Last Edit: 06/08/2023 05:01 am by LittleBird »

Online LittleBird

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https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1

Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

So the Soviets were inspired by Star Wars "Death Star".


Read the rest of the article to find out.

Spoiler alert! The answer is .... (Sorry, I can't do that to Blackstar. The article is a great read, one of his best, well worth the time).

The butler did it ;-) .... https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/dec/09/why-we-think-the-butler-did-it (though I see the butler was framed)

... joking aside, yes indeed, a superb article from Dwayne and Robert.
« Last Edit: 06/08/2023 04:34 am by LittleBird »

Offline catdlr

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https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1

Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

So the Soviets were inspired by Star Wars "Death Star".


Read the rest of the article to find out.

Wow, so they ended up developing a device that does look like a giant lightsaber with the Kyber Crystal compartment per this picture.  ;D

(and yes it was a good read, thanks).
« Last Edit: 06/08/2023 04:50 am by catdlr »
Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Online LittleBird

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Interesting post by first SDI Chief Scientist, Yonas: https://www.potomacinstitute.org/steps/featured-articles/65-it-s-laboratory-or-goodbye which deals in part with Polyus.

Fascinating blog more generally, he claims also to be inspiration for Opus' cri de coeur "Physicists Need Porsches Too":  https://sdiguy.blog/page/2/
« Last Edit: 07/06/2023 05:41 am by LittleBird »

Online Blackstar

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Interesting post by first SDI Chief Scientist, Yonas: https://www.potomacinstitute.org/steps/featured-articles/65-it-s-laboratory-or-goodbye which deals in part with Polyus.


He cites the right sources on that subject. (Lantratov, Asif, and me and Robert.)

Online LittleBird

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Interesting post by first SDI Chief Scientist, Yonas: https://www.potomacinstitute.org/steps/featured-articles/65-it-s-laboratory-or-goodbye which deals in part with Polyus.


He cites the right sources on that subject. (Lantratov, Asif, and me and Robert.)

Good to know ... He also has an interesting quest, and a readable style, e.g.:

Quote
At Reykjavik in October 1986, Reagan and Gorbachev almost agreed to abolish all nuclear weapons, but Gorbachev’s fear of initiating a space race with the US, and Reagan’s misguided commitment to SDI prevented what might have changed the course of history. The mystery of why they failed at a historic agreement has haunted me for decades.

The mystery I pondered for many years was focused on something Mikhail Gorbachev said to President Reagan at the Reykjavik summit meeting. He said four words that abruptly changed the course of history: “It’s laboratory or goodbye.” And now I think I understand.

So what really happened at Reykjavik? What role did the SDI play in the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union? Many historians and analysts have considered this question over the decades. None other than the “preeminent historian of the Cold War,” Yale history professor, John Lewis Gaddis wrote that the SDI “may have been the most effective in ... promoting internal reform in the Soviet Union…the SDI may well have pushed them over the edge.” 1 He was not alone in this theory and many well informed scholars have agreed with Gaddis that “…SDI was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Having served as the first chief scientist of the program, and from my vantage point of the SDI program that existed in 1986, I understood that we had few if any technical accomplishments to prompt a giant arms race, let alone the collapse of the Soviet Union. It seemed to me to be like trying to knock over a Sumo wrestler with a feather. When Nigel Hey interviewed me for his book, The Star Wars Enigma about the SDI’S role in the collapse of the Soviet Union, I was unable to clarify or substantiate Gaddis’ claim. I told Hey “the real SDI story is about human behavior, bluff, fear, confusion and hope.” When Hey asked me about the reported description by Robert McFarlane, Reagan’s national security advisor, that SDI was “the greatest sting operation in history,” I replied, “there was no sting, there was no plan, but the story unfolded anyway. It happened because the role of people – crazy, thoughtful, selfish, drunk, stupid, clever people – is to contribute unpredictably.” 2

So why did Reagan and Gorbachev consider the future of SDI so important that they could not come to an agreement? This, to me, was an enigma, particularly given what I knew about the state of the program at the time. I was not satisfied with just leaving an important part of my life as a mystery, so I set out to uncover the reasoning behind the decisions that took the world to the edge of abolishing nuclear weapons and then backed away.

I now think that Oleg Baklanov, the leader of the Soviet military industrial complex, and the fate of Polyus, the Soviet’s first space based laser experiment, hold part of the key to unraveling the mystery of Reykjavik. At the same time, a clash of ideologies, not between the US and the Soviet Union, but rather between the political and technical leaders within each country, created unresolvable conflicts that led to strategic errors. But before I explore the pivotal role these factors played, I want to take a look at the events that led up to the summit.
« Last Edit: 07/06/2023 05:41 am by LittleBird »

 

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