Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet Shuttle
Message-ID: <14663@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Date: 13 Sep 89 13:18:30 GMT
References: <388@entec.Wichita.NCR.COM>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
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In article <388@entec.Wichita.NCR.COM> kthompso@entec.Wichita.NCR.COM (Ken Thompson) writes:
>	What would keep us from firing a maneuvering engine from
>near or inside a pirate space vehicle.

Before retrieval, you could make life difficult for the retriever by
firing your thrusters -- but not forever.  An unmanned Buran with a big
fuel load might well outlast a KH's ability to play hide and seek.  If
not, you can always send another one up later -- the KH can't refuel.

More crucially though, if you can attach ANYTHING to the KH you can break
its ground control link, and that's all she wrote.  That's why I presume
there's some self destruct mechanism built in, which could be heard
via omni at high gain from the ground if there were ever evidence that
Something Funny was happening.

One might as well mention that while a KH is taking evasive action it
is probably unable to observe what's happening on the ground... :-)
-- 
Annex Canada now!  We need the room,	\)	Tom Neff
    and who's going to stop us.		(\	tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET