For decades, the Outer Space Treaty (OST) has prevented any nation from placing nuclear weapons in space. To date, however, no mechanisms have been put in place to determine whether a signing member’s satellite may be violating this treaty, or even developing other nuclear capabilities that the original treaty never considered.
Through new analysis of the problem, Areg Danagoulian at MIT suggests a safe and feasible approach to monitoring suspicious satellites, using neutrons emitted as radioactive material is impacted by naturally occurring protons in the Van Allen radiation belt.
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