http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/d805653303cbbba8/id/258785/cs/1/

It doesn't need 'rocket science' to knock off satellites in space
Malaysia Sun
Friday 22nd June, 2007
(ANI)

Washington, June 22 : Sophisticated military and civilian satellites
will need protection from terrorist organisations or rogue states, who
can use satellite tracking technology freely available on the Internet
to guide an intermediate range rocket against such targets.

Such an attack, according to Adrian Gheorghe of Old Dominion
University Norfolk, in Virginia, USA and Dan Vamanu of "Horia Hulubei"
National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, in Bucharest,
Romania, would require modest engineering capability and only a
limited budget.

Writing in the Inderscience Publishers' International Journal of
Critical Infrastructures, they said, "military satellites, global
positioning systems, weather satellites and even satellite TV systems
could become victims of such an attack".

As part of their study, Gheorghe and Vamanu carried out an analysis of
just how easy it could be to knock out strategic satellites.

Their finding suggested that dozens of systems on which military and
civilian activities depended, made near-space a "vulnerable
environment".

The team used a so-called "mathematical game" and textbook physics
equations for ballistics to build a computer model to demonstrate that
anti-satellite weaponry was "a real possibility".

"Accuracy and elegance are not issues in carrying out a satellite
attack," the researchers said, "as long as the projectile hits the
satellite".

"In fact, all it would take to succeed with an amateurish, yet
effective anti-satellite attack would be the control of an
intermediate range missile, which is well within the reach of many
nations and organizations with sufficient funds, and a college-level
team dedicated to the cause," the researches wrote in their study.

"Any country in possession of intermediate range rockets may mount a
grotesquely unsophisticated attack on another's satellites given the
political short-sightedness that would be blind to a potentially
devastating retaliation.

"While it may be true that, when it comes to nuts and bolts, things
may not be quite as simple as they sound here, the bare fact remains -
it can be done".

As such, the risk of deliberate satellite sabotage should be placed
higher on the security agenda, they said.

============

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200000161

Satellite Destruction Using Google Earth And Orbitron

Researchers use off-the-shelf software as part of an experiment to
demonstrate the vulnerability of critical space infrastructure.
By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
June 22, 2007

Say you want to shoot down a satellite.

After a brief stop by Wikipedia to brush up on China's destruction of
its Feng Yun 1C weather satellite in January, you download Sebastian
Stoff's Orbitron satellite tracking software and Google Earth, to make
your attack easier to visualize.

You pick a target. Why not Feng Yun 1D, since the Chinese don't appear
to care much for their weather satellites?

You plot the satellite's position ten minutes hence using your
computer and you feed the predicted latitude, longitude, and altitude
to your hidden launch pad control center. Using literature that's been
available since the 1960s, you -- or your launch control staff, if
you've got the requisite payroll of a Bond villain or an international
terrorist cabal -- compute the amount of fuel needed to get your one-
stage rocket and its warhead to the satellite's future position.

You plot a "solution" or flight plan that takes into account the
liftoff phase, the controlled orbit insertion phase, and the ballistic
fall onto the target. You double check your math, because you've got a
small chunk of change invested in this scheme.

Lacking the standard red launch button, you settle for clicking the
"Destroy Satellite" dialog box (you had to code this yourself).

Your computer dutifully asks for confirmation: "Are you sure you want
to Destroy Satellite? This operation cannot be undone."

This, more or less, is what Adrian Gheorghe, Professor of Systems
Engineering at Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia, and Dan
Vamanu, a Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Physics and
Nuclear Engineering in Bucharest, Romania, did as an experiment to
demonstrate the vulnerability of critical space infrastructure.

Writing in a paper titled "Risk and vulnerability games. The anti-
satellite weaponry (ASAT)," Gheorghe and Vamanu conclude, "In theory,
the ASAT ballistic hit looks quite a doable stunt. ...One may safely
assume that any country in possession of intermediate range vectors
may mount an ASAT adventure..."

"It's an awareness paper," said Gheorghe in a phone interview, who
aims to make it clear that satellites aren't merely vulnerable to
nations with demonstrated anti-satellite capabilities but to a far
broader group.

This is not to say that the kid next door is likely to try such a
thing tomorrow and prompt a retaliatory missile strike (make sure to
be out on an errand when that happens). The barrier to entry in the
anti-satellite club isn't yet that low.

But ongoing efforts by software billionaires to commercialize space --
Elon Musk's Space Explorations Technology Corp. and Jeff Bezo's Blue
Origin, for example -- demonstrate that rocket technology and know-how
are becoming increasingly accessible. And the software is already
here.

Shooting down a satellite, is, as Gheorghe and Vamanu put it, "in
theory, piece-of-cake!"

===========

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070622090716.htm

Do It Yourself Anti-satellite System? Military And Civilian Satellites
Need Protection
Date: June 22, 2007

Science Daily - Satellite tracking software freely available on the
Internet and some textbook physics could be used by any organization
that can get hold of an intermediate range rocket to mount an
unsophisticated attack on military or civilian satellites. Such an
attack would require modest engineering capability and only a limited
budget. That is according to researchers writing in Inderscience
Publishers' International Journal of Critical Infrastructures.

A terrorist organization or rogue state could threaten essential
satellite systems, according to Adrian Gheorghe of Old Dominion
University Norfolk, in Virginia, USA and Dan Vamanu of "Horia Hulubei"
National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, in Bucharest,
Romania. Military satellites, global positioning systems, weather
satellites and even satellite TV systems could all become victims of
such an attack.

Gheorghe and Vamanu have carried out an analysis of just how easy it
could be to knock out strategic satellites, their findings suggest
that dozens of systems on which military and civilian activities
depend make near-space a vulnerable environment. The team used a so-
called "mathematical game" and textbook physics equations for
ballistics to help them build a computer model to demonstrate that
anti-satellite weaponry is a real possibility.

Accuracy and elegance are not issues in carrying out a satellite
attack, the researchers say, as long as the projectile hits the
satellite. In fact, all it would take to succeed with an amateurish,
yet effective anti-satellite attack would be the control of an
intermediate range missile, which is well within the reach of many
nations and organizations with sufficient funds, and a college-level
team dedicated to the cause. "Any country in possession of
intermediate range rockets may mount a grotesquely unsophisticated
attack on another's satellites given the political short-sightedness
that would be blind to a potentially devastating retaliation," the
researchers say.

On January 11, 2007, China deliberately destroyed one of its own
weather satellites in a test, which some analysts suggested as having
the potential to revive a techno-political race believed to be defunct
since the 1980s. According to Gheorghe and Vamanu that was the cool
analytical view, but some hot diplomats are quoted as saying this
demonstration is "inconsistent with international efforts to avert an
arms race in outer space and undermining the security in outer space".

"While it may be true that, when it comes to nuts and bolts, things
may not be quite as simple as they sound here, the bare fact remains -
it can be done." Their conclusions suggest that the risk of deliberate
satellite sabotage should be placed higher on the security agenda.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by
Inderscience Publishers