Tungsten and the Rods from God

Rods from God - Space based tungsten rods can cause 
some serious havoc upon Earth

Popular Science 2004/6

Tungsten - so what?

Let us get into the subject of tungsten and the real business of humanity - making war!

When President George Bush opened Star Wars debate, militarization of space, he just did what people have always done. For we are so made that we fight each other for power over other humans and resources and benefits and power and most of all, power.... ah, did I mention the word power?

By chance, the same day that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was released in theaters across the country, the world learned of the Bush administration's plans to weaponize space.

So while critics speculated about the parallels between the Evil Empire and the Bush administration, pundits debated the merits of "space superiority"--the allies it would alienate, the treaties it would violate, the billions it would cost.

The irony was not lost on Teresa Hitchens, vice president of the Center for Defense Information, whose insistence that the world would not "accept the U.S. developing something they see as the death star," was carried in the pages of the New York Times.
Michael Godlfarb

Rods from God

Tungsten, usually alloyed with nickel and iron or cobalt to form heavy alloys, is used in kinetic energy penetrators as an alternative to depleted uranium, in applications where uranium's additional pyrophoric properties are not required (for example, in ordinary small arms bullets designed to penetrate body armor).

Similarly, tungsten alloys have also been used in cannon shells, grenades and missiles, to create supersonic shrapnel.

Tungsten has also been used in Dense Inert Metal Explosives, which use it as dense powder to reduce collateral damage while increasing the lethality of explosives within a small radius.
wikipedia

A kind of slingshot stationed in space.

No nuclear fall-out, no explosives, no fires and ignitions. Just simple rods of hardened tungsten hitting suddenly from the blue sky above with enormous speed stationary targets, such as bunkers or important enemy buildings. Leaving nothing undamaged.

Something like the fire and brimstone raining on Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible or the huge hailstones thrown by God of Israel from sky causing great havoc to Canaanite kings and their soldiers on the way of Beth Horon.

As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the LORD hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
Joshua 10:11

There is no way to stop them things falling from the sky, no way to detect in time the launch, no way to intercept the falling objects with missiles or other projectiles. They just come and do their thing.

In short, an ideal weapon for the militarily minded.

Based in militarized space around planet Earth.

HOW DO THE RODS WORK? The system would likely be comprised of tandem satellites, one serving as a communications platform, the other carrying an indeterminate number of tungsten rods, each up to 20 feet in length and 1 foot in diameter. These rods, which could be dropped on a target with as little as 15 minutes notice, would enter the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 36,000 feet per second--about as fast as a meteor. Upon impact, the rod would be capable of producing all the effects of an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon, without any of the radioactive fallout. This type of weapon relies on kinetic energy, rather than high-explosives, to generate destructive force (as do smart spears, another weapon system which would rely on tungsten rods, though not space-based).
Michael Godlfarb

Welcome to the world of the most important source of funding for space research in all nations - Star Wars.

For from up there you have real power.