"jacob navia" <
ja...@spamsink.net> wrote in message
news:jk0i3t$bn3$2...@speranza.aioe.org...
> Le 15/03/12 20:04, Eddie Haskell a écrit :
>>
>
> I remember the film NASA did for the final flight of the Space Shuttle.
>
> You see a bunch of workers, young, old, in front of the camera with a
> sign written by them, all with a small sentence like "Proud of America"
> or similar. The come, stay a few seconds, smile, and then they
> disappear.
>
>
> And behind the smiles you see the incredible drama in their almost
> invisible tears. Those people were the ones that made the Space Shuttle
> fly.
>
> Their enormous dedication, their complete enthusiasm for their job.
>
> A job that disappeared as the whole American working class disappeared.
I (barely) remember the first shuttle launch. And it was the most dramatic
and nerve racking launch I've ever seen and by a lot. The first time
I saw it on TV sitting on the pad, I couldn't believe it. At least the
earlier
rockets were mostly tested unmanned first, and they weren't nearly as
complicated as the Shuttle on top of that. Watching that successful
launch was one of the most jaw-dropping moments in NASA
history in my opinion.
The program did last a very long time though, some 30 years, so the sad part
isn't so much it's ending, but that we didn't find a reason to build the
next
generation and continue the jobs. Originally, the whole point of a shuttle
and space station was to create a space infrastructure that would enable
much more ambitious space activities. To be determined at a later date.
But when the crucial time came, the goal became returning to the Moon!
Which was clearly a cover for the militarization of space activity.
9/11 had many victims, the direction of our space future was one of them.
Now, low earth orbit is all about intelligence and missile defense.
The big turning point was the first Bush budget a year after he took
office when the Space Solar Power program was cancelled, and
he quietly started turning the manned program into another subsidy
for national security issues post 9/11.
Space Solar Power ....would've given us /good/ reasons, profit
and need oriented reasons, to build the next generation of launch
vehicles to help put up the massive amounts of payloads SSP
would need.
If we can just tap some massive profit making industry in low earth
orbit, we could have all those space jobs back...times ten.
The energy market operates on a huge scale, space activity
needs massive investments, and I don't see any other space
'commodity' with a fraction of the potential, or nearly
as easy to access as Solar Power.
We still can have that future!
9/11 aborted this NASA goal, a worthy goal the public
and Congress could more easily justify and support.
Executive Summary
NASA'S SPACE SOLAR POWER EXPLORATORY
RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY (SERT) PROGRAM
"The SERT program was established in FY 1999 and continued
through FY 2000 by U.S. congressional appropriation. An additional
appropriation was also funded for SSP Research and Technology
(SSP R&T) for FY 2001. Decisions on internal NASA budget
allocations for FY 2002 were pending during review and publication
of this report. During recent agency wide realignments, future SSP
programs may be included within other NASA initiatives"
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10202&page=1
If that program had been continued, here's the projected
timeline below, we would already have a megawatt demonstrator
flying and the 10mw class would be under construction.
SSP (SERT) schedule of milestones
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10202&page=72
>
> The empire started its decadence period as the workers disappeared.
>
> The dismantling of the space program is just a symptom of the dismantling
> of the American society.
But if you go over to the various military websites and see
what they're up to in space, I think you'd surprised just how
ambitious and fast our space capabilities are growing.
Soon, our military will make the good 'ol Starship Enterprise
look like a minor weapon next to the US military. We're
building the ability to launch all kinds of mirror covered
UAV's, blimbs and satellites which will serve a dual purpose.
To collect information, and bounce laser beams from a
large ground based laser, to ..any place the mirrors can see.
To anyplace on Earth, at the flip of a switch....Zap!
Even Captain Kirk couldn't do that, not any point on
Earth from one place.
Stealth is now the realm of weapons too, as in a laser
leaves behind no evidence and is invisible, things will
just get hot and explode. Read for yourself, it's pretty
interesting stuff.
Tactical Relay Mirror System (TRMS)
"The Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation is evaluating a plan
to use relay mirrors with a 15- to 25-kilowatt laser. This "redirected"
energy weapon would not suffer line-of-sight limitations, and could
hit targets quickly with minimal collateral damage. The Tactical
Redirected Energy initiative would place a laser in a transportable
container [such as a connex box] with the tactical relay mirror
integrated on a unmanned aerial vehicle or aerostat balloon.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/systems/trms.htm
The Evolutionary Air and space Global Laser Engagement (EAGLE)
"The project is a combination of two separate missile defense efforts:
the Aerospace Relay Mirror System and a new, high-altitude airship.
The project is designed as a means to destroy enemy missiles before
they would have the opportunity to hit targets on American soil.
It involves using either ground-based, air-based or space-based lasers
deflected off a massive airship (roughly 25 times the size of the Goodyear
blimp) covered in mirrors that could destroy missiles but also satellites
or spacecraft in a low-earth orbit."
'The first tests of the airship were scheduled to begin in 2006. Its current
status as of 2011 is unknown."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_Air_and_Space_Global_Laser_Engagement
Starfire Optical Range
"According to an article published on May 3, 2006 in the New York Times,
research is being conducted at the laboratory into how to use ground-based
lasers to disable satellites; that is, as an anti-satellite weapon.[2]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfire_Optical_Range
Air Force Space Command
http://www.afspc.af.mil/
s