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Big Freakin' Laser Beams In Space
schnippy writes "Esquire is running an interesting article on the work on adaptive optics and directed energy being done at the U.S. Air Force's Starfire Optical Observatory. This facility was the subject of a New York Times article earlier this year which suspected the facility was conducting anti-satellite weapons research under the cover of astronomy."
Any word on how we're going to get sharks up there?
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Maybe they are just planning on giving astronauts laser eye surgery from the ground.
Hey, guys. Big gulps, huh? Cool. All right! Well, see ya later.
Finally, we have a weapon capable of defeating the Brotherhood of Nod.
But sharks can't breathe vacuum...
They are going to warm up a bit of Mars.
Hopefully, they won't "test" it out on targets closer to home first.
liqbase
but when will we see handheld laserguns?
http://www.moerks.dk
http://www.vilos.com/lasers/lasers-howto.html
:-(
That's all you need to build a fire-starting laser out of a DVDRW.
He leaves off some of the important details, though
Also, my research suggests this is illegal.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
They are soo sharking Congress on that one.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Anyone have a taste for popcorn?
Finally my dream of making a house full of popcorn while listening to Tears for Fears will be realized!
cz
I for one welcome our new space-laser wielding overlords!
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
We see through a glass darkly--somewhat like trying to spy on beauty through textured-glass shower doors.
Ok, forget space, I want a laser-telescope-camera at home right now if it can see through next-doors shower door.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
You can use it for star-gazing... or weaponize it without much effort. It's just the nature of the beast.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
But can it whistle, or is it still like a goldfish?
Read any good sonnets lately?
Water goes in cargo container, cargo container goes in rocket, shark goes in water. Our shark.
We're gonna need a bigger rocket.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
...obviously. Sheesh, pay attention!
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
FTA: "The same electromechanical pistons that shape the adaptive-optics mirrors hold the whirling primary mirror's true shape (to a precision of twenty-one nanometers, three thousand times finer than a human hair) while small, fast-steering mirrors cancel out additional jitter." The accuracy they are able to obtain is amazing. Before you know it, they will be able to fire a small projectile from a satellite and eliminate a target as small as a human. In a few years, enemy leaders will not even be able to go outside without fear of a bullet falling from the heavens and crashing into their skull. Cool.
Wrong, Anonymous Republican Coward.
It was a Democratic Congress under Reagan that outlawed Star Wars. Although the Pentagon and CIA/NSC entitlement budgets hid covert Star Wars budgets for years, despite Democrats' attempts to stop them, even when Democrats were powerless in the minority - the last 12 years, the last 6 under Bush.
Shouldn't you be busy blaming Iraq on Democrats, like the rest of your party's covert pundits? Or do you all have too much time on your hands to stay busy the last 2 months you're actually running the country? I guess marketing is always Republican job #1.
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They're using the telescope to spy on that orange chick from the Teen Titans.
I actually worked for a company that a did a lot of the initial work in designing the storage system used at StarFire (which had some pretty nasty data capture requirements because of the highly "bursty" nature of the data capture.) From what I understood of the limited amount we were told the idea was to use an array of smaller optical telescopes and image analysis software to create a "mosaic" of the overall image that was corrected for atmospheric distortion. While nothing was said at the time, the implication was that this was for ABM, not anti-satellite, i.e. it was to make easier to shoot something down with a laser inside the atmosphere. Of course, the trick was not producing the image per-se, but producing it fast enough to be useful as part of a firing solution, i,.e a crystal clear shot of the target that takes 5 minutes to produce is of limited utility :-)
Of course the technology has a number of potential uses, both military and non-military, but that's true of just about any large hi-tech experiment. Given that StarFire is run and funded by the USAF (not NASA or a University institute like JPL), I don't think should come as any great surprise that they are rather more interested in it's military applications.
Hmm... back when I was a graduate student at Penn State in the 90's, we could often see the remote sensing teams testing LIDAR (think RADAR, but with laser light). The laser was quite powerful, seemed to extend all the way up to the heavens, and could be seen for miles around.
Perhaps I'm just a bit jaded that them "city folks" (aka The New York Times) seems to think that anyone beaming a laser into the sky must want to destroy stuff.
Hrmpth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR
The British Government have confirmed the existence of their sister program, The Torchwood Institue, having recently demonstrated its latest ground to space design over the holidays.
[/remove tongue from cheek]
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
It'll only be a boondoggle if, after spending a "$TRILLIONS", the laser fails to work when the residents of YOUR_CITY_HERE need it...
Not hardly, it works, and works a heck of a lot better than you might think from reading "mainstream media" accounts. Also note, it is less expensive than you might think. If you sum up all the $ spent on missile defense since the mid 1980s, it is just slightly over the amount the attacks on 9/11 cost this country's economy. In my book, that's cheap insurance against events that would be significantly more costly to the country than 4 airliners.
Also, Missile Defense is not the same as Reagan's "Star Wars." The real Missile Defense system is far more practical and pragmatic than the grand vision. Someday, yes, there will be a version of that vision. But the current Missile Defense system is firmly rooted in real-world technologies.
--- Just another Code-Monkey
Isn't that a Men's clothing magazine? Since when do we get technology information from Esquire? That's like going to Dr. Dobbs looking for a pie recipe or Car and Driver for gardening tips.
--- Just another Code-Monkey
It was (and still is) a dream of defense contractors to waste taxpayers money on unworkable "star wars" system.
Pretty much all politicians - i.e. Reagan, Bush, the democrats - are in the pocket of defense contractors, so all politicians share the same dream of funding this bullshit.
Obama 2012: our incompetent asshole is slightly less of an incompetent asshole than the other incompetent asshole !
James Follett's novel 'Torus' also explores this concept.
is what happens when a scandal comes up involving it. I hope to god the media doesn't call it Stargate...
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
In addition, it wasn't under the cover of "astronomy", it was under the cover of "deep-space telemetry".
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
I worked for a company that delivered a 3.5M BEAM DIRECTOR to AFWL in the 90's. Notice the caps. So why is this a surprise to anyone ? The program was DESIGNED to **CLASSIFIED **** in the **CLASSIFIED*** stage of flight. Of course it has other uses. Beam source was a GPFEL.
However, trust me on this, it's too damn big to attach to a shark's head. Even a whale shark. A space based shark, maybe, but you'll have a tough time getting something the size of a small skyscraper into orbit. Not to mention the nuke plant to power it.
Would you like to buy my magic tiger-repelling rock for a mere $5,000? It's only a boondoggle if it fails to work and you get mauled by a tiger...
0 1 - just my two bits
You assume that the whole premise of using directed energy to destroy an object in-flight is flawed. It's not. The only thing flawed is your capicity for reason in addition to a high probability that you loathe any technical advance that may translate into US military superiority. Doesn't matter to you one bit that anti-ballistic lasers may on some future day save millions of people from instant cremation.
If the USAF uses Starfire, they're going to go out of mana pretty quickly. I hope they have a lot of MP/5 and know when to use that Innervate.
The subject line should have said:
Warming a Very Tiny Piece of Mars For Terraforming
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"Extra Anus Kills Four-Legged Chick" -- Headline
Of course, since you say so, it must work. After all, the generals and defense contractors conning us into paying for it say so, so you should say so, too. I bet you also said Iraq would be a cakewalk. I bet you blame all the money lost by our economy since 2001 on the Qaeda attacks, not the boob spending a $TRILLION a year on the Pentagon.
What "book" of yours would all that lost money be in? The Halliburton shareholders report?
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It's also a boondoggle if it turns out to cost a huge amount and never gets used.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Mod parent very funny! very funny indeed. Grammar Nazi's rejoice, now there is a way to hit people where it hurts and still keep the karma!
B.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
Interesting that you compare the cost of the missile defense to the cost of 9/11, which of course didn't bother with missiles.
If I secretly had a nuke, I could blow up pretty much any coastal city in the world without a problem.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
If you go look at the web page for the starfire optical range it clearly mentions the "Directed Energy Directorate's Starfire Optical Range". A large number of good observatories are at least partially funded by the Air Force... MRO in New Mexico is a perfect example. Regardless a lot of the information saying these things dates back to 1998 and 2001. The Air Force also has some neat tricks up it sleeve doing optical interferometry (which is especially tricky since you really need to know the position of your mirrors to within the wavelength that you're working with). Last I heard though, that was limited by the fact that someone dropping a garbage can in the next room could throw things out of alignment. There's one thing that people are overlooking too, it's great to be able to observe things with adaptive optics systems. I have another friend in astronomy who has actually been able to resolve stars using an Air Force system. The trick though is that stars aren't putting out enough energy to disrupt the atmosphere. If you suddenly start pumping enough energy through the atmosphere to destroy a satellite, you're going to do a lot of local heating and there's no way you could modify your beam fast enough to keep it nice and tight. You might as well use a non-adaptive telescope.
Absolutely right! It doesn't work because Doc Ruby says it doesn't work. And we all know that Doc Ruby doesn't have to support his accusations/trolls/flamebaits with such trivial things as facts.
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Wanna know the big secret though? By working on anti-satellite weapons they send out the message that it is ok for other countries to do the same. Of course since the US is far more dependent on satellites than any other country we'll have to turn around and develop anti-satellite defenses! Just like how they are working on cruise missle detection after years of developing stealthy cruise missles.
The defense industry creates its own business. It isn't called welfare if the recipient has "inc." after their name.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
I don't assume anything about the morality or technical feasibility of missile defense lasers. I just wanted to point out that your argument is silly because it applies equally well to rational defense methods and to ludicrous "magic rock" defenses.
Now if only there were a way to channel the explosive rage of a drudge report fan's TERRORIST! COMMIE!! LIBERAL!!! AMERICA-HATER!!!! outbursts into a missile defense weapon...
0 1 - just my two bits
YOU! ARE! A! TOY! A CHILD'S PLAYTHING!
Slashdot's lameness filter hates Toy Story.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Cardinal of the Kremlin
Also... SIMPSONS DID IT
(please don't mod me down for reading Tom Clancy)
2^4 * 3 * 20929
Is obviously to aquire bigger sharks, With nuclear reactors on their backs.
I never said anything about Iraq or Al-Qaeda. I don't claim any in-depth knowledge in those areas. When it comes to Missile Defense however, I do know what I'm talking about. Does your work email address end in @mda.mil? If not, I suggest you listen to people who do know. Diluting your argument with ad hominem attacks and other topics does not help your case.
--- Just another Code-Monkey
What a load of crap. Everyone knows Star Wars doesn't work, except maybe some of the people getting paid by the longrunning boondoggle program. What's your excuse?
BTW, I note that nowhere have you offered even fake marketing^Wfacts to support your extreme claims that Star Wars works, despite acknowledging the consensus that it doesn't. To be more than fair, there is ample documentation that Star Wars is just for the movies.
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It is only a matter of time before our enemies have sophisticated missile technology. Several countries openly hostile towards us and our allies are actively pursuing missile and nuclear weapons development programs. Unless you advocate nearly immediate pre-emptive military attacks, nation-states hostile towards us, our policies, and our allies will develop long range nuclear equipped missiles.
Sure, that is nothing particularly new. We survived 50 some years of MAD with the former Soviet Union. However, the groups pursuing nuclear and missile technology today at their best are far less stable and rational than the leadership of the Soviet Union was, even at its worst.
I guarantee you the US will need a viable Missile Defense. Maybe sooner, maybe later. The problem is, once we need it, there will be no time to develop it. The time to develop and perfect a defensive system is before you need it. Taking judo lessons after you're mugged doesn't help.
If anyone believes North Korea and Iran are developing their missile and nuclear programs as interesting science projects... I've got this bridge outside Tucson...
--- Just another Code-Monkey
You should probably use a variant of the power-sucking that the Ori perform. I also believe Steve Jobs is working on such as well in order to replace exploding Sony batteries.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Oh, so you do get paid to lie about Star Wars.
Now you're lying to say I'm making personal attacks on generals and corporations. How do you make a personal attack on a corporation? And why are you capitalizing the words for them, out of some kind of authoritarianism that worships both the military and its corporate partners?
Maybe you "would" suggest refraining from making baseless attacks if my criticisms weren't based in extensive facts. But you did anyway. What would prevent you from such a suggestion, since reality isn't holding you back?
I brought up Iraq because it was easy to guess that you live in a simulated reality. You know that "Iraq" is the word for "boondoggle" these days, right? Maybe not, inside your mda.mil bubble. You're the one who brought up the Qaeda attacks as an implied alternative to the cost of your Star Wars toy. Though you're lying about the cause of those costs, too. Because lots of those costs are supporting you and your warmonger industry. Which is probably looking less rosy, now that VP Fear isn't calling the shots on budgets without restraint anymore.
You have offered less than zero evidence that your point, the fictional working Star Wars system, exists at all.
So you don't have the facts, your logic and inference is useless. What are you implying should make me see things your way? A big frickin' laser beam in space? See post #1, tough guy. You are the last person I expect to impress with the merits of my case. You can't even defend your lies about Star Wars with honest argument. I should trust you to defend my civilization from a barrage of nuclear missiles?
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Whoever modded that Overrated? Definitely working for NiD.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
I doubt that we'd need missile defense against North Korea or Iran. Either would be more likely to try a terrorist type attack than a missile attack against us. Both know that we would detect the launch bloom of a missile attack, and in retaliation would wipe out their entire country for one missile strike here. On the other hand, a shipping container or sailboat sailing into SF bay with a nuke would be much harder to track back to the guilty party, and therefore we'd be much less likely to launch a nuclear reprisal.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
Only on Slashdot does a story about space and lasers lead to the tagging system creating one and only one tag: sharks.
Every weapons system has a counter. If you want to dodge under the 'missile defense system', just don't use a missile. Deliver the payload in a Ryder truck. Reputedly, it worked in Oklahoma City with a fuel oil bomb. I'd imagine it'd work even better with a nuke...
I've heard this kind of rhetoric before. Does the name 'Team B' ring a bell? Those were the guys back in the 80's who were given total access to the CIA's files on the Soviet Union. A civilian group, without Congressional oversight and whatnot. They decided, since there was zero evidence of the Soviets coming up with a brand spankin new acoustic submarine detection system, that the Soviets had developed a nonacoustic means of submarine detection, and started sounding the alarm. They never found it, of course, because it didn't exist. They pressed for 'more and better' defense spending, which got us saddled with Star Wars. Star Wars was a contractor's wet dream, tons of cash to develop science fiction weapons against a nonexistent and unproveable threat.
As a footnote, 'Team B' later became the leaders of what we now know today as the Neoconservative Movement, comprising all the Usual Suspects such as Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld. Interestingly enough, Bush Sr. thought they were full of shit, having been head of the CIA, but Reagan half-bought their line. Even though he believed the Soviets were the 'Evil Empire', he still thought he could bargain with them...
It's in Lake Havasu City, dood...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Oh yes, this was the same USAF facility that photographed the space shuttle Columbia as it passed overhead minutes before it broke apart during its 2003 entry. They say they took that picture on an 11 year old Mac which would be almost 15 years old now. Not too surprising that this type of research is going on there, although it is pretty close to Albuquerque.
John F. Kennedy's Address at Rice University on the Space Effort (September 12, 1962):
I now feel obliged to post that every time people talk about weapons in space.
Uh huh.
Overheard at the Chinese military high command:
Gen. Chao: "We must develop anti-satellite weapons! The Americans are greatly dependent on their satellites!"
Gen. Tso: "We can't! They haven't worked on anti-satellite weapons yet! So it's not ok for other countries to do the same."
Gen. Pao: "Damnit!!"
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
I can see it is pointless to try to have a real discussion with a zealot. Thanks for the laughs though. I could tell you exactly how well it works, doesn't work, and why. But it wouldn't be worth losing my job and getting arrested just to rub your face in it. So, sleep well under the blanket of our protection, even while you deny it exists.
--- Just another Code-Monkey
But I have to disagree with you on the missiles. Both NK and Iran are pouring a lot of money into their programs, and willing to put up with a lot of international flak and pressure to stop, yet they aren't. You have to ask yourself, why? And you have to look at what they are working on - long range missiles. That tells you who they want to be able to threaten. Both countries already have short to medium range missiles, so if they feel threatened by their immediate neighbors they can respond in kind. There's really only one reason to develop long range missiles and nuclear weapons - to threaten people far off a city at a time. That would be us. The other thing to remember is that Missile Defense isn't just about defending the continental United States. Many of the systems under development or being deployed now can be, well, deployed. They can protect US citizens, interests, military forces, and allies overseas. Just ask the Israelis about defending themselves from short range rocket attack. I'll bet it is very high on their priority list after this past summer...
As for counting on them -- NK, Iran, or whoever they sell their missiles to -- to be rational, for MAD to work with them... I wouldn't bet the country, or even a city on it. Look at the 9/11 terrorists' organization. They attacked us so violently, with such intensity, that we could not help but respond militarily. Did they really think we would just say "Wow, guess we have to take these guys seriously and negotiate with them and their demands?" No, they couldn't be that delusional.
They knew, had to know, that by attacking us that way we would come after them. Yet they did it anyway. Is that rational? They were willing to trade an entire country away (well, ruling it) to strike one good blow against us. Do you doubt that such "leaders" would hesitate for a second to strike a nuclear blow against us with a long range missile if they were able? Sure, they'd know we would almost certainly respond in kind with a nuclear strike against their launch facility. To them and their kind, no big deal, just another sacrifice in their so-called Jihad against the west.
The really scary thought is, even if NK and Iran are the peace loving misunderstood victims here that they'd like us to believe... ;-) They've demonstrated a willingness to sell or trade their technologies. In the abstract sense, I can see why they're doing it (but that's another long discussion). I don't think we can realistically prevent them from developing viable nuclear weapons and long range missiles. All I'm saying is we have to, have to be ready to counter them.
--- Just another Code-Monkey
Yes, just as our Missile Defense system is the counter to a threat set.
As for a Ryder truck being a viable alternative. Might work. I'd probably go U-Haul, aren't they air-ride equipped? Wouldn't want to bounce "the device" around too much. ;-) Wasn't that a Clancy novel? No wait, that was a TV truck... ;-) Anyway, seriously, that is a real threat. Hence the emphasis on improving border security, harbor security, screening and detection etc. But the missiles are also a real threat, and not just to us here at home. (ask Israel about short range rockets...) In the past several months both NK and Iran have test fired missiles. They continue to develop better, longer range missiles. That threat is equally real. I contend that realistically, there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them from continuing their development. Consider, even when NK struck a deal with then President Clinton to halt nuclear development, they continued, just more secretively. Iran went back on its word and reopened its nuclear facilities.
Star Wars was a contractor's wet dream, tons of cash to develop science fiction weapons against a nonexistent and unproveable threat.
It is interesting work. But the systems are not sci-fi, they are real. So is the threat, or did you miss NK's little fourth of July fireworks show, and later the big bang?
--- Just another Code-Monkey
You forgot to salute and tell me you'd have to kill me if you told me.
I'm going to sleep well tonight. Even though I'm paying you and your entire industry to do nothing but lie about how you're terrorizing me and my neighbors. While you do nothing to stop a rain of incoming nukes by missile or shipping container. Except multiply the amount our enemies produce to overwhelm the marketing lies you produce about the nonworking technology.
You will continue to sleepwalk through your dream of working missile defense. Just like the past 20 years of your identical predecessors. Because they told you you're a hero.
You're welcome for the unquestioned socialism that keeps your useless work and smug attitude safe for democracy. Truth zealots like me are pretty easygoing.
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Seems like you got it backwards. defense contractors live and die at the whims of politicians. What you're claiming is the equivalent of claiming an armed mugger holding a weapon is at the mercy of his unarmed victim. The power held over the politician is - give us a contract or your district will have 12,000 new unemployed technology people.
Then again, what should one expect from one of the crowd that evidently believes man cannot survive fast train rides because the body will explode if it travels over 40 mph.
After the media started humping to protect the soviets' strategy, it's no wonder that most people never understood what the original SDI was about. Evidently, things haven't changed much in that regard despite the radical increase in the need for it.
If man were intended to fly, he'd be born with a propeller beanie already attached to his head.
I visited the Starfire facility in the mid-'90s. Now, it seems to me that if they'd let me, a long-haired hippie-lookin' mofo who's only reason for being there was I was schtooping the Colonel's daughter and had mentioned in small talk with him that I was interested in lasers and built that nitrogen job out of Scientific American in high school, it can't be that classified. It's not like they said anything about keep your mouth shut or made me sign anything. We did pass through a gate guarded by some serious lookin' dudes who pointed their rifles at me, but they didn't even take my name that I recall.
After we got to the top of the mountain, we went into the main building. There were a couple of dudes in suits there. I was introduced, but I don't remember who they were. Not sure if they were Congressional types or Pentagon guys or what, but the people who worked there were nice to them so I tried to be on my best behavior. We got a short lecture about the project and some of the photos they had produced were handed around.
In case you didn't RTFA, the purpose of Starfire is to use a projected laser dot to configure an adaptive-optics mirror to compensate for atmospheric distortion and allow for better terrestrial astronomy. It works pretty damn good too. The photos I saw were very impressive. Better than Hubble in some cases, which they were justifiably very proud of. They sure were a helluva lot cheaper to get than Hubble photos.
After the lecture we got a tour of the facility. There were several telescopes on the mountain, a couple of which were capable of projecting a laser. The main 'scope had a really neat setup where they could have several experiments going at once and rotate a mirror to pick which one went up the tube. Other than that there were the optical experiment tables, the adaptive-optics setup, the imaging system, and several different kinds of lasers of varying impressive powers.
Next we went into the main dome. We were informed that the main telescope could depress below 0 degrees and the dome could be lowered in 30 seconds, and raised in two minutes by machine, or ten minutes if the hand cranks had to be employed. At the end of the telescope I spotted a disc with "Raytheon" on it. I casually asked, "What's the radar for?"
"To make sure there are no aircraft entering the beam path," the tour guide replied. The suit dudes were very surprised by my question so I mostly shut up for the rest of the tour. We then exited the platform so they could open the dome and slew the telescope.
Next came the control room. There were a bunch of guys in there, some in uniform and some in civvies. The were all business and didn't say much. They showed us the computer that had the ephemeris of every object in orbit down to the size of a quarter. All the computers were UNIX and X Windows, FYI. As a software guy, I thought the interface left something to be desired, but that's just me. Tracking an object with the 'scope was as simple as clicking on the desired target. We watched the 'scope slew through a CCTV monitor located near the target computer. Sadly, conditions were unfavorable for a test firing, so I didn't get to see the big mother fire.
Last they took us down to the "shack" where the guide-star laser was produced and sent through a smaller scope. The guys in here were friendlier, hippie/scientist types. I rapped with them a little while the brass talked amongst themselves. They were really excited about their laser because it was very powerful and very yellow, which worked out good for their astronomy.
Understand, the men who worked on this project never, ever said anything about it's use as a weapon. They always talked about it in terms of the astronomy. They had a nice telescope with a honkin' big laser under it, a radar on the front of it, and a computer that could track the 'scope on every object in orbit, up on a mountain in the middle of nowhere, but officially the fact that Starfire could be used as a weapon never occurred to them
Actually the original SDI triad was substantially pragmatic and short term practical. Of course some of it was actually disinformation intended to subvert existing soviet strategies - and it worked. One of the triad pillars was simple SAMs and phalynx type guns - to protect missile silos and other expected targets. Another of the pillars was some large satellites that were basically gattling guns firing shotgun pellets - something that could have kept space flight virutally impossible for years. The third pillar was the new technology, powerful ground based lasers and satellites with adaptive optics on reflectors - something that would have prevented the typical BS sci-fi scenario of commandeering a massive remotely controlled weapon in space.
The purpose of SDI was to prove excellent protection agains an accidental launch - or a launch by terrorists or puny little states like north korea. It was also intended to throw in a massive amount of uncertainty into a possible first strike by the soviets or red china. By creating the uncertainty in the outcome, it diminished what ever likelihood there was of a first strike decision being made.
The soviets were quite a different opponent than we are seeing now. To keep their socialist workers paradise afloat, they needed to conquer, rape and pillage resources from new 'client' states. The US was in the way but was also the major prize. The desire on their part was to be able to convincingly deliver a 'checkmate' - a 'surrender or die' ultimatum in order to achieve a surrender.
What we have now in Iran and the radical islam cult which may now even be approaching mainstream islam in scope, is rather different than the soviets who were more akin to being a modern version of vikings. The radical islam types are more like the alien opponents in Independence Day.
As such, the deterence part of SDI is of far less significance for this enemy. What's worse, diplomacy only works when they want to buy time to get better prepared to destroy us. The radicals have been creating a culture of death that significantly exceeds that of the wwii kamakazee.
Uh huh...
More like:
"They started it! We just responded."
Chemical weapons weren't used by the allies in WWI until the Germans tried them first.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"freakin"?
:(
My word, where have we fallen.
Have you read my journal today?