NonCredibleDefense

The launch platform can aim it and use math to account for gravity, the atmosphere and all that jazz to hit the target at least close enough. Just like we already do to safely crash/burn up space debris.

A lot of the energy comes from orbital speeds.

The Hypervelocity Rod Bundles project proposed 6,1x0,3 m tungsten rods, weighing about 8200 kg, impacting at about 3000 m/s, meaning about 42 GJ of energy per projectile [wikipedia].

The weakest recorded nuke, the Davy Crocket Tactical Nuclear Weapon, is estimated at about twice that (84 GJ), and the largest, Tsar Bomba, at about 3 000 000x the yield (210 PJ).

So a little bit of looking around, and some "Close enough, fuck it" math suggests that the Saturn V over the duration of it's launch emitted about the same amount of energy (190 Gigawatts over 2.5 minutes = 2.85x10e+13 joules, close to 7000 tons of TNT at 2.93E+13 joules) as 1/3 the yield of the Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki (FM = 20,000 tons of TNT = 8.36e+13 joules).

Now I'm not math inclined, so you should take all this with more salt than your doctor recommends, but if the rocket's output is comparable to 1/3 of an actual nuke, then it's not unreasonable to think that converting all of that back into kinetic energy would get you roughly 1/3 of a nuke's output, which could be said to be "the force of a nuclear weapon." It would take a launch of something Saturn V sized or bigger to put one up there, but supposedly Starship would be up to the task if it ever stops exploding itself and/or it's launch pad.

What I'm saying is, it's plausible enough for a blurb on some article.

And friction would cost some work both way

They are super far from having that kind of money. Anyways the US would know early enough to stop it.

Magic The Gathering has a lot to answer for.

Doors and corners, kid.

Other recommended book series for scifi physics:

• Expeditionary Force
• Bobiverse

Inyalowda love rocks, so let's give dem sum, sasa ke

True, but to hit things within the atmosphere it needs high mass and low drag. The ISS re-entering would have high mass but high drag, and most of it would fall apart when entering and be slowed down by drag so the energy gets spread through a long streak on the atmosphere instead of on the target

In the Expanse series Earth and Mars are at war. They can easily throw rocks and totally destroy the other side. Not just beat them in a war, like totally wipe them out. But Mars knows if they start throwing rocks all bets are off and Earth will wipe them out. Just as Earth knows the same, if they wipe out Mars, Mars will make sure the Earth is destroyed.

It's an analogy of the current situation we have with nuclear weapons. During the Cold War Russia made sure they could wipe out the US if the US ever tried a first strike and the US made sure they could wipe out Russia if they ever tried something. The Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) prevented anyone from taking the first step. These days the playing field is a bit more complex, but the same principles hold for now.

Of course in the Expanse there is a third party with nothing to lose that at one point employs such a weapon of mass destruction. But let's just hope that part isn't a mirror for reality.

You can make good reasons or at least plausible ones. 40k has planetary shields. There could be a civil war so neither side might want to destroy the surfaces of each planet and civilians. Battletech has spaceship tech being rare and irreplacable, and there are treaties limiting orbital and nuclear bombardment.

Sometimes the most realistic route just isnt fun though so i can usually look past the contrivances.

Good sci-fi usually treats this on par with using nuclear weapons (which it kinda is?). In Babylon 5, mass drivers are banned by intergalactic treaty, and when one race uses them anyway it literally bombs their victims back into the stone age, and it's treated as a horrifying event --one of the character's defining moments in the show is just him looking on silently in horror.

Neil Tyson needs to shut the fuck up and stop cockblocking me from having based weapons

I mean you have to put a nuclear amount of energy into the rods with chemical energy. Why not skip a step and just drop a big conventional explosive?