Orbital Bombardment

Kinetic bombardment was a famous branch of debate back in my old world. Basically, one curious man began it by thinking about what would happen if a telephone-pole-sized lump of tungsten fell to earth from orbit.

The answer? Apparently, enough damage can flatten a city.

Of course, just dropping the metal rod would not make it reach optimal speed. This is one mistake that the scientists back then didn't consider. A free fall from orbit—even the Low Earth Orbit alone—could take thousands of years to touch down!

And so, we discussed this with everyone and devised a plan. Instead of free-fall, we would initialize the "rods" by pushing them to fly to the surface. To do this, we attached a special magnetic material to the rod's tip. It has a "partner" that would be activated upon touching the earth and would "pull" the rods from the geostatic orbit at a rapid pace.