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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

gisterme - 03:06am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12749 of 12758)

rshow55 - 11:00am Jun 29, 2003 EST (# 12735 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.frz4bflolei.0@.f28e622/14405

..."Here are things that I believe can be achieved --

Very large area solar cells on the equatorial oceans. It should be possible to generate enough hydrogen to serve all word energy needs, forever. Hydrogen would interface well with existing energy sources and capital installations, from early prototype stage to the largest possible scale..."

Glad to hear that, Robert. You must have found the answers to all the questions asked last time you brought this up. They were:

gisterme - 03:44am May 10, 2002 EST (# 2136 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.frz4bflolei.0@.f28e622/2652

Looking forward to hearing some solutions. :-)

gisterme - 03:18am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12750 of 12758)

fredmoore - 11:17am Jun 29, 2003 EST (# 12737 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.frz4bflolei.0@.f28e622/14407

"...You send them to Thermodynamics school to learn about entropy and EMERGY.

And what do they do?

They eat all the pages!..."

Well, at least that wasted papers re-enters the cycle a bit higher up on the food chain, Frank. :-)

By the way, ...EMERGY? Is that the term you're giving to collective effluent emissions in water runoff? All the "stuff" that emerges? I didn't notice a definition for EMERGY in any dictionary I had, so that's just my guess from your context of use. Care to give a definition of EMERGY?

gisterme - 05:27am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12751 of 12758)

I'm saddened to hear of Katharine Hepburn's passing. She was among the all-time best in my book.

lchic - 06:53am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12752 of 12758)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

.. and her regret was ... 'that she could have achieved so much more'

fredmoore - 07:15am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12753 of 12758)

Hank(y)...

Click on the link I provided in that post. Emergy is described from page 4 onward of that document.

Cheeers

lchic - 07:22am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12754 of 12758)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Green by name, 'green' by nature

"" ... Professor Martin Green of the University of NSW, "Japan has committed to 1,500,000 homes being powered by solar cells by 2010 and I would expect the recent nuclear accident would stiffen their resolve to ensure this happens." Both Europe and the US have committed to 1 million solar homes by 2010."

Martin Green is also the Research Director of Pacific Solar, which is leading the world in research and development of photovoltaic energy technology and is currently seeking investment to further the commercialisation of its technologies. Capital would be allocated to further develop thin-film solar cells which promises to cut the cost of solar electricity by two thirds. ...

Professor Martin Green : 041 149 2416. http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/1999/oct/141solarresource.html

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