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Missile Defense

Nazi engineer and Disney space advisor Wernher Von Braun helped give us rocket science. Today, the legacy of military aeronautics has many manifestations from SDI to advanced ballistic missiles. Now there is a controversial push for a new missile defense system. What will be the role of missile defense in the new geopolitical climate and in the new scientific era?

dirac_10 - 12:51am Jan 26, 2001 EST (#601 of 637)

US steadies aim of space laser

Thursday, 25 January 2001 13:43 (ET)

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The development of a futuristic orbiting laser capable of shooting down missiles headed for the United States took a step forward with the successful test of a means to keep the weapon pointed at its target in the weightless environment of space.

Engineers from the Space Based Laser-Integrated Flight Experiment (SPL-IFX) consortium successfully tested software designed to keep the laser's telescopic targeting optics fixed on their targets while the weapon is firing, it was announced Thursday.

"The test was a solid success," said Col. Neil McCasland, director of the Air Force's SBL-IFX project office. "The laser operated (as expected), the software designed to maintain the positions of the beam director optics during lasing performed as designed, and we collected a wealth of diagnostic data about the high-energy laser environment."

The test, which lasted 6 seconds, took place Dec. 8 at a TRW facility in Orange County, Calif.

The $240 million SBL-IFX project is aimed at developing a working laser-armed satellite that can defend the United States against a small number of missiles launched either by mistake or by a "rogue" nation. The Air Force-funded consortium's plan calls for an actual attempted interception in 2013.

"A critical part of a successful on-orbit IFX demonstration is being able to know precisely where the beam director will direct the laser beam," said Art Woods, Lockheed Martin's space laser program manager. "We proved with this test that the...systems designed to measure the alignment of the beam director telescope and the relationship between the beam director's primary and secondary mirrors can operate effectively in the presence of the high-power laser beam."

The consortium, which includes TRW, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, received its latest funding increment from the Pentagon last October and has started fabricating some parts of the actual orbiter, a TRW spokesman said Thursday. -- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

Uhh, like I said...

Could it be that the reason that no scientific or engineering reasons it won't work have been given is that there aren't any?

They probably already had it up in space doing it's job 5 years ago. Look at how long it took to tell the world about the SR-71 or the F117. Or any other swell secret weapon.

Skeptics could start out by mentioning one single solitary secret weapon we ever kept the public up to date on.

And something that makes ICBM's obselete, is a heck of a lot more important than some stupid spy plane. We are not likely to tell the world all about it and how it works.

Duh.

rshowalter - 05:57am Jan 26, 2001 EST (#602 of 637)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

From the article:

"The Air Force-funded consortium's plan calls for an actual attempted interception in 2013."

That's not tomorrow.

Well maybe it is all up and running now. In which case, how many politicians have been lied to, about VERY LARGE EXPENDITURES OF MONEY?

I'd be glad if we did have a successful missile defense.

Maybe the failed tests that got so much publicity were "disinformation" to confound an "enemy" of ours. To what purpose?

Nuclear stability requires information, not secrecy.

bigred152 - 09:02am Jan 26, 2001 EST (#603 of 637)

Interesting to note that USA is 'thinking' of putting up big dollars re space-y-stuff, yet, the internet is currently falling over because much of it is based close to silicon valley ... where the power supply is falling over. Tesla no doubt laughing in his grave!

Prioritisation wise .. folks are very interested in the efficient and effective functioning of the day-to-day ... and USA should note that if the power falls over the 'world' falls over .. with respect to data based communication ... which has been mighty inefficient over past days!

mhunter20 - 10:02am Jan 26, 2001 EST (#604 of 637)

Soldiers are told not to march in step when crossing a bridge. Tesla was aware of the accumulative effects of positive feedback. One day for several hours he hit the Golden Gate Bridge with a hammer. After the bridge started to sway noticeably the police told him to stop.

The bridge swayed due to the positive feedback to standing waves.

Tesla discovered that the Earth produces standing waves of electrical energy. (See his autobiography.)

dirac_10 1/25/01 11:55pm

But beam power at a distance with one antenna at 12 Mhz, and have it hit one spot to be used, I don't see how.

I don't know if the death ray ever worked. (The bit in the link about possibly being a particle accelerator seems to me to be incorrect. If Tesla was responsible for the Tunguska event, then it seems to me that the trees may have been destroyed by reverse lightning, the more powerful lightning that starts from the ground.) Think about the implications, if the death ray did work. (1) Tesla built his first magnifying transmitter prior to 1900. His budget for the device built at Shoreham, NY was $150,000. (2) The tower could easily be hidden from sattelites. (3) If global warming is real or oil and methane are not produced by the Earth's interior as Thomas Gold has written, we may actually see Tesla's World System for power distribution implemented.

Just charge up a capacitor with a diode using the electromagnetic energy in the air. And yes you can lift a weight with it, but I just don't think there is enough energy around in the air to flatten 2000 sq. km. of trees at once.

The energy is from a capacitor but includes more than just the air. Tesla's source of energy for the magnifying transmitter is a capacitor of about .25 Farads, commonly referred to as planet Earth.

Tesla

I mean this: If you pass a current into a circuit with large self-induction, and no radiation takes place, and you have a low resistance, there is no possibility of this energy getting out into space; therefore, the impressed impulses accumulate.

Positive feedback to standing waves.

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