China develops compact power source to shoot down low-orbit satellites (like Starlink)
Military scientists have built a compact power source that could significantly reduce the size of a high-power microwave weapon under development in China. A useful tool for the fight against satellites.
The device is capable of generating electricity of up to 10 gigawatts of power at a rate of 10 pulses per second – intense energy that could produce microwave beams powerful enough to fry the chips of drones, aircraft or even satellites.
Usually, such a high power energy supply system is complex, heavy and as big as a room, thus difficult to move. According to the team led by Shu Ting, of the College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies of the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, in Hunan province, the new device, with all the necessary components, including the capacitors and the control system, can fit in the shelf of a bookstore, then be suitable for a mobile weapon.
The small power source allows the military to place the microwave cannon on a truck or rooftop to launch surprise attacks on hovering enemy targets down to low orbit.
The power device could operate constantly simply by "plugging it into a city power grid," Shu and his colleagues said in an article published in the Chinese-language journal High Power Laser and Particle Beams on March 16.
According to some Chinese military researchers, the Chinese military accelerated the development of high-powered microwave weapons after SpaceX's Starlink satellites were used effectively against Russia in Ukraine.
It would be technically and financially impossible to take down the Starlink network – which already has thousands of satellites in near-Earth orbit – using traditional anti-satellite missiles. A directed energy weapon, on the other hand, would not have this problem and these costs. A microwave gun can jam satellite communications or permanently damage their electrical circuits cheaply.
But the equipment used by the military mostly generates microwaves at power levels of kilowatts or megawatts. To damage a satellite, which is likely protected by shielding measures, the power of the microwave beam must reach a gigawatt or more, according to a recent estimate by People's Liberation Army scientists. This could create problems in the normal circuits that could melt and this will create new challenges related to the materials to be used.
The device developed by Shu's team is an electron accelerator with an unusual DNA-like internal structure. It accelerates electrons into two coiled tubes resembling the double helix structure of genetic material. The coiled tubes were soaked in glycerine, a cheap liquid chemical that provided excellent insulation and required no battlefield maintenance, adding that the shorts disappeared after they found a way to get rid of the tiny bubbles in glycerin.
The US has already advanced in the use of microwave weapons, but the prospect of a Chinese increase in power can quickly compensate for this gap.
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The article China develops a compact energy source to bring down low-orbiting satellites (like Starlink) comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cina-sviluppa-una-fonte-di-energia-compatta-per-abbattere-i-satelliti-in-orbita-bassa-come-starlink/ on Fri, 31 Mar 2023 06:00:57 +0000.