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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?

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rshow55 - 07:53pm May 12, 2002 EST (#2174 of 2190)

Did do more today on gisterme's technical questions, as I said I would in rshow55 5/11/02 8:39pm . But mostly I got sidetrackecked on economic-organizational questions, stimulated by these wonderful, important, thought provoking pieces.

With Markets Flawed, Enron's Tactics May Live On By JOSEPH KAHN http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/business/yourmoney/12ENRO.html

The Long Boom Shows Its Ugly Side By DAVID LEONHARDT http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/weekinreview/12LEON.html

Does Energy Deregulation Still Make Sense? By ALEX BERENSON http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/weekinreview/12BERE.html

Suppose (just as a thought experiment) that we knew for certain, next year, that an essentially infinite source of pressurized hydrogen were available, at equatorial ocean sources, for a price per energy equivalent (as hydrogen - far from markets) of $10/ barrel. (or some other price) after scaling to very large production. ( 1% of the world's energy consumption would be very large scale production.)

That resource would be worthless without more. Big investments would be required - in the "best of all worlds" what would those investments cost? Would the amortized cost, per barrel equivalent, permit a reasonable return? Gisterme raises engineering questions related to that question -

I've been sidetracked with other questions - that apply to the less than perfect world we live in. One question is "who would pay?" Another question is -- what would the innovation do to the value of current assets? Could holders of assets that might be devalued stop the development?

They might. If you read the articles linked just above, you can see that they might.

Some pretty careful negotiations might have to be involved. A leader like Putin might be indispensible to make such a deal possible.

More on gisterme's engineering problems tomorrow.

One thing that's clear is that, no matter how it was done, phase in of the new source would take many years - and prodigious amounts of both investment and good engineering. But there seem to be many ways of tackling the engineering challenges involved - and nothing like the impossible tolerances of "missile defense" seem to be involved.

More tomorrow.

lchic - 10:00pm May 12, 2002 EST (#2175 of 2190)

^{Who pays?
most often
User Pays}

lchic - 10:13pm May 12, 2002 EST (#2176 of 2190)

American ABC have taken to looking at the fate of Palestinian/RefugeeCamp MEast children - the fourth generation of Stateless-refugee kids afforded poor provision and no world status as expressed through passport ownership.

Wondering why the USA has been so lob-sided wrt the MEast ... does it boil down to the fact that