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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?

mhunter20 - 09:52am Jan 30, 2001 EST (#626 of 636)

rshowalter 1/29/01 8:48pm

Tesla may have been wrong about the death ray and even about the magnifying transmitter. The link I posted stated that a letter was sent to the government concerning the death ray. The link may not be accurate.

Blow up a huge forest on the other side of the world BY ACCIDENT ?

It is not logical to ignore this possibility. Tesla's inventions are numerous and many are used today. He is honored by scientists, who named the units of magnetic field strength Teslas (Webers per meter squared, 10^4 Gauss). In his autobiography Tesla claimed that he successfully tested the magnifying transmitter, which he called his greatest invention.

The world isn't that easy. And because it isn't easy, VERY hard jobs, like missile defense, may be, as a practical matter, impossible.

I agree with you. Destroying an ICBM in flight is extremely difficult and destroying a fleet of incoming ICBMs, hidden among decoys and painted to avoid destruction, may be practically impossible.

rshowalter - 02:15pm Jan 30, 2001 EST (#627 of 636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

We're agreed, and I should have taken Tesla's own depth of conviction more tactfully in mind in making my comments.

I'm afraid, like a lot of people, I fight a little too quickly. I'm trying to learn more tact, but I'm finding that it doesn't come so easily for me. Thanks.

bigred152 - 08:46am Jan 31, 2001 EST (#628 of 636)

A point is all that you can score, when two tribes go to war

~ http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/trianglesquare/273/lyrics/2_tribes.htm

~ http://www.geocities.com/~mikerein/80s_music/F/frankie-two.txt

bigred152 - 09:45am Jan 31, 2001 EST (#629 of 636)

Tesla (Large 168 KB, 489 by 746) , (Thumbnail, 13 KB) greyscale, formal, waist up in suit, shoulders facing to his right, head turned toward camera, younger (Large 48 KB, 295 by 439) , (Thumbnail, 12 KB) color, of Tesla statue on U.S. side of Niagra falls, seated bronze (Large 78 KB, 444 by 312) , (Thumbnail, 7.9 KB) greyscale, Tesla seated in lab, beneath large electric discharge (Large 32 KB, 180 by 271) , (Thumbnail, 15 KB) color, poster, `The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla' (Large 17 KB, 160 by 278) , (Thumbnail, 15 KB) greyscale, poster for film `Nikola Tesla, the Genius who lit the World

bigred152 - 09:48am Jan 31, 2001 EST (#630 of 636)

Tesla

Tesla (Large 168 KB, 489 by 746) , (Thumbnail, 13 KB) greyscale, formal, waist up in suit, shoulders facing to his right, head turned toward camera, younger (Large 48 KB, 295 by 439) , (Thumbnail, 12 KB) color, of Tesla statue on U.S. side of Niagra falls, seated bronze (Large 78 KB, 444 by 312) , (Thumbnail, 7.9 KB) greyscale, Tesla seated in lab, beneath large electric discharge (Large 32 KB, 180 by 271) , (Thumbnail, 15 KB) color, poster, `The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla' (Large 17 KB, 160 by 278) , (Thumbnail, 15 KB) greyscale, poster for film `Nikola Tesla, the Genius who lit the World'

~ http://www.hep.ucsb.edu/people/hnn/physicists.html

mhunter20 - 11:19am Jan 31, 2001 EST (#631 of 636)

From today's NYT letters to the editor:

A Futile Missile Shield

President Bush's missile defense system will not protect us against the real threats from rogue nations. An attack will not come in a missile; it will come in a suitcase.

A terrorist government won't bother firing a nuclear missile at us when it can just smuggle a nuclear bomb across the border in some luggage that could be built with far more ease than a missile silo. This tactic would be safer for the rogue government, since it would be extremely difficult for us to track the bomb's origin, and we wouldn't know where to begin a retaliation.

Why spend billions of dollars on a system that shoots down treaties but not missiles?

Damon Elder,
Eugene, Ore.

dirac_10 - 12:25am Feb 1, 2001 EST (#632 of 636)

Well, yes, and perhaps only a mason jar. But there is a reason that the big boys still have missles.

And our spies of all kinds may just not be as stupid as they seem. They just might know a little something. You can't be sure. It's a fool's bet, for this one, they would blow their cover. And knowing about the plan to bring in in the mason jar would elicit the same response as ICBM's. And the result would be fast and certain.

It's an insanely dangerous game we play with MAD. Every one has gotten used to it. Either we are very lucky, or someone needs some congratulations.

I remember reading Feynman talking about right after the war. He wondered why people were still building bridges since everything would be destroyed.

Yet it didn't happen.

But it will eventually. A mistake if nothing else.

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