You know what I've never bought?

[Dr Megaverse]

That there are no viable satellite up-links left ANYWHERE but in the Minnesota area. What about up-links buried deep in the Rocky Mountains somewhere safe in an MDC bunker? What about the reinforcement that the control centers would have received? My guess, they'd be built to be able to withstand a nuclear attack, possibly even a "bunker buster" nuke. Like the American Empire wouldn't have planned on the possibility of a nuclear attack from a foreign nation. Granted most of the worlds nukes and their delivery devices were destroyed when peace broke out. Some of them COULD have been rebuilt, however, which would have spurred most nations to I'm sure reinforce their key infrastructure...part of which would be satellite up-links, especially considering the time.

That being said I'm sure that the majority of the satellites up in orbit have been obliterated by either the debris field, the opening salvos from attack satellites, self destruct codes, or even the people left up in orbit. Even after all that, as we all know, SOME of them are left. So in my opinion there is enormous story potential here. I saw an interesting article on Van Buren, the unreleased Fallout title, that was about a crazed madman who gains control of a satellite up-link station and plans to use the nukes onboard a kinetic nuke launching satellite to kill a city. This has Rifts written all over it! Any thoughts?

[dragonfett]

If I remember correctly, the only remaining satellites in orbit are Hunter-Killers.

[Hound]

The majority of hardware in orbit has either been destroyed or repurposed by the Orbital community. The other thing you need to consider is that even if there were a functioning satellite available, no one on earth would know the access codes to get to it!
Thats not to say there isn't communication between Orbit and earth- the 2 ARCHIEs are aware of each other and have had communications, though ARCHIE-7 is unaware that 3 is sentient nor has 7 told the Lunar colony yet.

[Tearstone]

You guys are forgetting that in 300 years or so the satelite orbits will have decayed until they fall down, go boom in the atmosphere. Well, unless they have had course correction data put in, AND they are kept fueled.

As for access codes... Got Hackers?

[Kalidor]

Satellites are solar powered, being fueled isn't a problem.

[Shawn Merrow]

They still need fuel to mantain their orbit.

[glitterboy2098]

That there are no viable satellite up-links left ANYWHERE but in the Minnesota area. What about up-links buried deep in the Rocky Mountains somewhere safe in an MDC bunker? What about the reinforcement that the control centers would have received? My guess, they'd be built to be able to withstand a nuclear attack, possibly even a "bunker buster" nuke. Like the American Empire wouldn't have planned on the possibility of a nuclear attack from a foreign nation. Granted most of the worlds nukes and their delivery devices were destroyed when peace broke out. Some of them COULD have been rebuilt, however, which would have spurred most nations to I'm sure reinforce their key infrastructure...part of which would be satellite up-links, especially considering the time.

actually, i think this is both a good point and not a good point. would there be more sattelite uplinks surviving? probably. but keep in mind, that the kind of uplink you'd need to control a sat is different from the kind you'd use to send/receive data from it. most sattelite uplinks able to control a sat wouldn't really survive. they use larger dish sizes, and have ot be outside to function right. so most would be destroyed by the cataclysm. and once the sats they manage lose contact with the ground, their orbits would get screwed up, they'd drift out of place, fall out of orbit, etc.

That being said I'm sure that the majority of the satellites up in orbit have been obliterated by either the debris field, the opening salvos from attack satellites, self destruct codes, or even the people left up in orbit. Even after all that, as we all know, SOME of them are left. So in my opinion there is enormous story potential here. I saw an interesting article on Van Buren, the unreleased Fallout title, that was about a crazed madman who gains control of a satellite up-link station and plans to use the nukes onboard a kinetic nuke launching satellite to kill a city. This has Rifts written all over it! Any thoughts?

actually, as per MiO, there are still pre-rifts sats in orbit. (mainly in the higher, more stable orbits), including some pre-rifts SDI sats. but most are either half-functioning junk, or actively rejecting radio contact. i think it's safe to assume that if the sat is still up there, it had at least a rudimentary AI control software system, and went "autistic" the moment it lost communications with the ground and registered nuclear explosions. so getting them to come back under control would take more than just finding a sat uplink facility (like maybe one of the ones down in Cape Canaveral area, dinosaur swamp), it would also require the command codes that tell the sat "hey, everything's back to normal, start obeying orders". and that kind of info would most likely be located at someplace like NORAD/colorado springs (the heart of SDI even today). otherwise you'd have to try and crack the sat's codes through trial and error (and the codes are likely ot be extremely complex and based on mathmatical formulas with quite a few variables). all while hoping the sat doesn't fire off a retaliation strike at you in response.