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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.

rshow55 - 05:48pm Jul 8, 2003 EST (# 12901 of 12904)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Lchic: http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@622/14572

"Where in the USA Global Terrorism POLICY is a plan to de-limit the strategicVision of the 'religious_police' of Saudi."

Unless and until the United States and its allies have alternatives to Saudi oil - we're in a subservient position - and there are no remedies without energy independence.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=subservient

Unless we can get some energy independence - we don't even have much negotiating room.

lchic - 10:28pm Jul 8, 2003 EST (# 12902 of 12904)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

GWB's speech re Africa and the evils of slavery has an interesting parallel today

NO minimum wage in the USA

The underclass are still shackled!

rshow55 - 08:04am Jul 9, 2003 EST (# 12903 of 12904)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Earlier Shuttle Flight Had Gas Enter Wing on Return By JOHN SCHWARTZ and MATTHEW L. WALD

"The space shuttle Columbia was not the first to have superheated gas invade its left wing on re-entering Earth's atmosphere, according to documents released yesterday by NASA.

"In 2000, the documents show, the shuttle Atlantis went into orbit with a quarter-inch breach in the wing's leading edge, allowing blowtorch-hot plasma into the wing on re-entry. But unlike the accident that destroyed the Columbia on Feb. 1 and killed its crew of seven, the incident resulted in only minor damage, leaving the wing's inner structure intact.

Comment - my guess, from the description below, is that there was a breach 1/4" long - and much perhaps 1/10" or less wide - is that right? The size, shape, and position of the hole will all matter - as will the angle of the gap with respect to the motion of the adiabatic air coming in at a temperature as much as twice the melting point of tungsten. How close to the leading point of the leading edge was it? From the description, perhaps not so very close.

"The documents, which were released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under a Freedom of Information Act request, were first described yesterday by The Associated Press.

"They say the gap in the leading edge of the Atlantis wing was created because workers installed insulation improperly during an overhaul in Palmdale, Calif., in 1997. The piece of gap-filling insulation was "folded up and pushed away" from the gap it was supposed to fill, leaving the cavity behind it exposed.

"Responding to the documents, an expert not involved in the Columbia investigation said yesterday that the Atlantis incident should have put NASA on high alert about wing damage. "That says they had fair warning and ignored it," said the expert, Paul A. Czysz, a professor emeritus at Parks College of Engineering and Aviation at St. Louis University and a longtime consultant to the space agency.

"When discussing the potential damage to the Columbia from the foam insulation that hit the leading edge panels of the wing some 80 seconds into the launching, Professor Czysz said, NASA officials "should have said, `If that opened up a crack any bigger than the one on Atlantis, we're in deep trouble.' "

Missile Defense #9204 - http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.P4FmbJabna1.12970@.f28e622/10731 defines adiabatic temperature from a clear engineering calculation Relationship between temperature, stagnation temperature and Mach number http://www.optimal-systems.demon.co.uk/appendix-c.htm - what's meant by "three times as hot (in absolute temperature) as a blowtorch." - Which means that even a small hole is "like a barn door" And made some engineering points that have been borne out, too.

search "adiabatic" - this thread - to see how gisterme resisted.

We're dealing with basic institutional and psychological problems. We can understand them better, and this thread has taken steps in the direction of doing so.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense