US owns space????

With no fanfare, the Bush Administration is taking military control of what it terms �near space,� thereby laying claim to the area of the Solar System that lies between the Earth and the Moon�s orbit...

inthesetimes.com...

Bush cancelled the treaty with th Russians so now he can test nukes in space...
Scary, isn't it..
- Tassadar

Nope, sorry. My nan claimed it years ago, it's already taken.

Seriously though, this article claims that all nasa missions will be partially military from now on. Scary.

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by Zzub]

Thing is, there is a vast difference between claiming territory... and holding onto it...

And the space in question is a big ass chunk of the sky...

Of course, the USAF DOES have the most advanced sky machines in the form of the X Craft.... so maybe he can back that claim up...

Originally posted by Zzub
Jesus christ, stop forcing your will on the rest of the world, Bush. [Edited on 16-9-2003 by Zzub]

Not just the world, 'lil Geogey's taking over space too...
Now, why would he need that???
hmmmmmmm????
oh yeah he could *government censor*
*the feds thing was gay, sry..*

That's certainly true though dr, with the Raptor coming into service next year (officially), it'll take the Russians a few years to steal the plans and by thn we'll have an F-27 or something...
- Tassadar

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by Tassadar]

Project Falcon?
Project Thor?

Sounds like Jerry Pournelle's Project Thor flies again!
Jerry Pournelle would be proud. In fact, he's probably gloating all over the place.

Pournelle and others on a team at Boeing in the 60s proposed kinetic energy weapons in orbit. Basically a bundle of "crowbars," dense metal rods with some ablative re-entry on the tip and just enough brains and steering ability to recognize and drop on the thing that was being targeted. He used them, or his Alien attackers did (very effectively), against Kansas National Guard tanks in Footall.

Thor would involve a projectile of around 27kg, traveling at orbital velocity, around 8,000 meters per second. The kinetic energy would therefore equal 864 mega joules, or over 200 kg or TNT.

You could loft a whole lot of these with any of the proposed systems on a moments notice. Put them in orbit with some maneuvering ability before release and every 90 minutes or so you'd have the option of dropping them over just about anybody you wanted to. How about a bundle of 1,000 of these things dropping on a massed Iranian army? An Al Qaeda traning compound? The DN... no, that would be wrong...

On a humorous note:
"Give us a superior curve, Mr Crusher."


regards
seekerof

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by Seekerof]

uhmmm....
dude.
Seek.

That's the article I posted at the top of this thread bro.
lol, good one
- Tassadar

Gosh Tass....I'm terribly sorry dude...really....in my zeal to post I screwed up....my apologies.

Won't happen again..I hope but I hope you do understand.

Sorry.

regards
seekerof

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by Seekerof]

Don't worry about it...
It just makes me feel proud to know I think the same way the great seekerof does .

I appreciate the info on Thor you brought to light
- Tassadar

Dont mean to be rude about this - but

1) Ar'nt there articles of the United Nations regarding conquest of space ?

2) There seem to be a few more pressing problems down here that need to be dealt with first

Originally posted by Silk
Dont mean to be rude about this - but

1) Ar'nt there articles of the United Nations regarding conquest of space ?

2) There seem to be a few more pressing problems down here that need to be dealt with first

Answers Silk:
1) I'm not sure on it...can check and see but will cost ya.

and...
2) Your correct, but governments tend to plan for the future...not for "now."

regards
seekerof

Right on...
Besides, it's not like Bush listens to the UN anyways...
He could be the **** out of the world from space too, quit simple;
just push a button
- Tassadar

Seekeroff

With due respect to the relatives of the shuttle disaster - just how much money will the US put into serious launch vehicle research given a request for the money for the redevelopment of Iraq.

Well, NASA just spent $1,000,000,000 on the X-33 (replacement for the space shuttle) and then scrapped the project.

NASA has a huge budget, too bad they never focus it very densely...
- Tassadar

that might be true - then $88bn for iraq is small money
but just who are you looking for as adversaries ?
Iraq was defeated in a matter of weeks

and to be honest - being from the uk who cares who owns space ?

the guys who visited roswell didnt really care whos back yard they walked into did they ?

If as im led to believe this board believes in extrarestial contact then perhaps they look at us saying .. HOW MUCH ? lol we did that on an 1/8 of the budget

We have a HUGE space budget and the people seem to want it that way (Yay Kennedy). I'm sure Fulcrum/Uninen will come in here and tell us how space really belongs to the russians but, so what. We all know the truth. America DOES own space for the moment. The only reason for this is that we threw a # load of money into it. Any other country could do the same thing. We just kept doing it since we haven't collapsed yet.

Well of course we own space who rivals us china maybe in a few years or russia if they get there crap together. Maybe GWB is tryin to pull a kennedy thing. I think we need something like that again that the whole country merges together for a common good even if it is nuclear armed pegasus missles controling space

I didnt want to say it Quick -
but well done you own erm what - an airless void ?
fair play to you - now look down and what do you see ? a country you liberated and dragged your allies into - children starving - no water no electricity - whilst what you spend to feed your pets in one year would feed this nation for 2 years - but it was your war and we backed you. Now does space feel cold enough ? - im sure your kids sleep well enough - and you get to go to McDonalds for lunch

This is not a good sign. Nukes are not the only thing they will be testing.

Silk,
Nice poetry, but,
If you have to go and be all techincal about it, you have to be techinally right about it...

Iraq's electric generators are producing 130% more electricity than during pre-war times,
Iraq's water distribution is back at 110% of it's pre-war statistics.
Iraq's genrating more oil than during pre-war times (don't know the number, get back to you later).
Iraq's run by a democracy.
Iraq's going to become the greatest Middle Eastern country within the next 5 years...

Is that really all that bad?
- Tassadar

its more than an airless void its prospects of expansion. Lets just sit on the hunk of rock forever. Just think of an age where you can visit mars on teh weekend. and just think if you do go to a distant planet or somting how about untapped resources??? And i dont knwo where your goin with the whole Iraq thing. What allies did we drag in England they seemed to come pretty willlingly and waht others allies did we "drag" in???? I cant think of any but what i can think of is some arrogant countries who say tehre allies who could help feed those children and put on the electricity. Rememebr the world is not perfect # happen. The loss in iraq is very minute compared to a nuke in dc or a biological attack on your city