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US Military Blocks Data On Incoming Meteors
Hugh Pickens writes "Nature reports that the US military has abruptly ended an informal arrangement that allowed scientists access to data on incoming meteors from classified surveillance satellites, dealing a blow to the astronomers and planetary scientists who used the information to track space rocks. 'These systems are extremely useful,' says astronomer Peter Brown, at the University of Western Ontario. 'I think the scientific community benefited enormously.' Meteor data came from the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite network consisting of infrared satellites in geosynchronous orbit to monitor the globe for missile launches or atmospheric nuclear blasts, forming the principal component of the United States' ballistic missile early-warning system. The satellites' effectiveness was demonstrated during Desert Storm, when DSP detected the launch of Iraqi Scud missiles and provided warning to civilian populations and coalition forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia. As a side benefit, the satellites could also precisely detect the time, position, altitude and brightness of meteors as they entered Earth's atmosphere, information the military didn't consider particularly useful, or classified. 'It was being dropped on the floor,' says former Air Force captain Brian Weeden. Although the reason for ending the arrangement remains unclear, Weeden notes that it coincides with the launch of a new generation of surveillance satellites and speculates that the Pentagon may not want details of the new satellites' capabilities to be made public, or it may simply lack the expensive software needed to handle classified and declassified data simultaneously. 'The decision may have been made that it was perhaps too difficult to disclose just these data.'"
I would too, do you want people running around like Chicken Little?
From TFS, the military stopped giving out unclassified information that was a byproduct of a military function - a windfall.
"Blocks" means that the information would flow but for the military's action.
The editors (snicker) should have used "stops" - more ambiguous and yet more accurate at the same time. But I guess that wouldn't generate the clicks, now would it?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
I assume this means the mothership is now on final approach, and we don't want those scientists causing a panic.
I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords. Advanced warning is only useful if you are against them. Join us.
--
Toro
void process_information(s_information* info) {
if (info) {
if (info.is_classified)
process_secretly(info)
else
process_publicly(info)
}
}
Can I have my millions now for "the expensive software needed to handle classified and declassified data simultaneously"?
The PowerPC includes for this purpose two instructions called SYNC and EIEIO.
Meteors are coming, everyone panic.
That's crazy talk.
Generals! Let me help you out. Me and right wing buddies will start posting stories about how the USA is dropping its guard against meteors, and potentially large asteroid strikes, and we'll create a groundswell of support for getting this thing turned back on. If the lefties can come up with some stuff about how good it is to have this government program, then, I'm sure we can form a bipartisan consensus to get you the funding you need.
This is my sig.
This is "restor[ing] science to its rightful place"?
What are they trying to cover up?
...something the size of Texas is headed our way and they don't want us to know yet.
alter table SatelliteInfo add IsClassified bit not null default 1
Then update the rows for the non-Classified ones.
But seriously, "Expensive software"? Isn't most of this stuff custom-built anyway?
They are most likely worried that the pictures might infer classified information or they think it had happened with the older system. Maybe you are able to map the positions of the satellites using the pictures. Its only a matter of time before things like that are figured out. The military will then likely declassify the information.
after the government started a new secret weapon program collecting adamantium meteors.
"north korea"
Get your own damn satellites.
I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
...they are hiding the Transformer invasion from us.
Table-ized A.I.
This is obviously deliberate, those scientists might get alarmed by the strange data when Dalmatians enter orbit, especially motherships.
/s
This is just one of many attempts at covering up the pending PlanetX disaster of 2012. http://www.december212012.com/media_push.htm
I would think the problem is that North Korea is supposedly going to be sending a missile over to Hawaii. Perhaps meteor monitoring was simply a bad use of the satellites' time as the US military is gearing up to track North Korea's launch.
Doesn't seem too far fetched to me...
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
So, this entire thread is essentially just a bait for idle speculation and conspiracy theories. Art Bell would be proud.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
that we are preparing for a strike, counterstrike situation w/ N. Korea or Iran.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
If the military believed that, given the meteor information, a black hat could deduce not only the capabilities of the satellites, but their actual orbits, that would certainly give them cause to discontinue the program.
...that, since the satellites are looking TOWARDS Earth and not AWAY from it, it'll only see objects that are actually IN Earth's atmosphere, which is FAR too late to actually GUARD anything.
My sig can beat up your sig.
More importantly, are they going to block the information on the outbound meteors?
CHIEF KORETZ: Sir, I have flash traffic at 24-18. Repeated calls for ID go unanswered. And it's not in the orbital or suborbital inventory.
MALE OFFICER #2: 24-18. Isn't that where...
CHIEF KORETZ: Same exact spot, sir. Although I am reading a much larger craft his time.
MALE OFFICER #2: Meteor, Ms. Koretz.
CHIEF KORETZ: A much larger meteor, sir. Hold on a second. (Putting hand to earpiece) We have a confirm. Whitmarsh Air Force Base is tracking...
MALE OFFICER #2: Where is it?
CHIEF KORETZ: Well, sir. The - meteor - seems to be hovering over a small town in Eastern Wisconsin.
Ezekiel 23:20
I think it is probable that the military has re-assigned the satellites so that more are looking in the direction of North Korea and possibly Iran. It would make a lot of sense to point the satellites in that direction and keep it secret.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
... Military satellites stop transmitting information about incoming meteor and space objects... Alien craft move in around the planet, setting up positions over major cities and military bases... Are they friend? Are they foe?... Duke Nukem Forever... the Live Action Game!!!
Who said it shared that info between processors?
If a classified-allowed process exists, it can have non-classified data on it too. It then SENDS this unclassified data to a processor that only works on unclassified data.
Or is this "multi-processor" thingy a bit hard for you?
You can *track back* and *see where it came from*.
This then tells you that there are several things off in that direction and it'd be a good idea to check there with *outward pointing* satellites.
You see how this works now?
Good.
Now, even better, if there are a lot of BIG meteorites, you know there are likely to be a lot MORE big metorites where they came from.
See how simple this is?
to the Monsanto Corporation. /Moon Whaler
It seems likely to me that our enemies have teamed up with aliens to defeat us. The military must being trying to hide it for our own good.
On the awful headline making me read a story that was neither negative, nor audacious.
Obviously they heard the Decepticons are coming and they don't want them to know the the capabilities of our space surveillance system.
The satellites were picking up data on meteors as they hit the atmosphere. This has nothing to do with the search for large objects that may or may not hit the earth.
This is technically made clear by the use of the word meteor, as opposed to asteroid, but I only remembered that as I type this so I expect I am not the only one that could have used a clarifying sentence in the summary.
My webcomic
... it may simply lack the expensive software needed to handle classified and declassified data simultaneously.
Sounds reasonable to me.
MLS systems are extremely difficult to get right, extremely difficult to accredit, and extremely difficult to maintain.
In general, they're a PITA.
My life would be so much better without them.
Given that we, and the world, know that meteors striking the atmosphere cause these infrared satellites to go off, what stops a rogue nation from figuring out when the Perseids or Leonids would be impacting above their country and using that as a launch window? I mean, what's an extra blip in all that noise?
"There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
if( object.type=TYPE_METEOR ) {
object.isClassified = false;
} else {
object.isClassified = true;
}
You just declassified EVERYTHING, including nuclear missiles.
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
Bullshit. Misusing "classified" is a felony, a go to federal pound me in the ass penitentiary sort of felony. Of the many things the federal government abuses, classifying information is a rare exception. Authority to classify informatino resides at very high civilian levels (not in the military) and we are specifically prohibited from hiding embarassing information under the classification system.
Many of us in the military are uncomfortable with the president's decision to classify pictures from Abu Graib. Legally, the pictures are likely to do "grave harm" to the United States, which is a requisite to classifying them. However, it's dubious whether that will withstand a FOIA request and follow-on lawsuit.
If things weren't bad enough, now I'm a troll too. :(
Come on, if the government has the software to sift through fathomless amounts of e-mail traffic and random data, only accessing it when it was intended for a party for which they have a fully cleared warrant, then surely they have the expensive software and know how to give us the locations of a few meteors?
And next week some country (insert n-korea, Iran etc...) apparently and without any reason attacked something or some country wich only the militairy can prove and there u go.. a valid reason to go to war again..
duh... wake up people
Bush's Fault?
SBIRS, can't kill it, can't make it live.
I'm guessing that a defense contract that's 4 times it's initial budget and 10 years late doesn't have the time to worry about filtering out the non-classified data to give to scientists. IR data is very very noisy so it's pretty difficult to separate out the parts you care about vs the noise.
Why does a Canadian professor expect free access to the byproduct of an organization funded by the American taxpayers?
Not that I'm an Intelligence expert, nor I'm from the USA, but I allways tought that it is better to control the information that you give than to simply stop giving it. I mean, I can give them the info that I want and then controlling the situation becouse I CAN know what they know and act acordingly and even possibly make them act the way I want. Now they (USA) just don't have any idea about what the others ( the usual suspects ) might know and they (USA) can't influence the other countries (the usual suspects) in theyr weapons devolopment. What happens if the other country (your favourite evil empire, kingdom, country...) just goes overkill and excedes the USS spy tech, who knows?, USA is not what used to be, becouse they (the usual suspects) don't think (information control) that they know that les advanced tech would suffice? Kind of mind blowing isn't it?
That's no moon. It's a ...
I first heard about this from Richard C. Hoagland on the Wed. June 10, 2009 Coast to Coast show -
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/06/10
where Hoagland claims that there is a space war going on among the ETs, and that the military blocked further acquisition of meteor data to prevent the public learning of this space war.
Of course, I believe none of it ... I just provide it for your amusement, and that you can glean some nuggets of information from questionable sources.
Or...it could be we finally are going to have a crashing asteroid hit our planet, as everybody has been to the movies has seen already.
This is it, the end is coming, the end is coming....quick, where is my umbrella?
they just don't want us to know about the giant meteor
The dumber and more embarrassing the various bits of conspiracy nonsense in evidence, the bigger and more remarkable the secret being covered up by the dissemination of said ridiculous bits of conspiracy nonsense. . .
The best way to make people look the other way is to make them cringe.
Psyche 1 oh 1.
-FL
Or it could be that the military does not wish to give the civilian bureaucrats over at DHS/NAO (National Applications Office) any excuse to wrest further control over military satellites from the DOD. As conditioned as we are to give facile short shrift to the military establishment's motives in these kinds of secret matters, it may be that this is very definitely the lesser of two evils. The loss to science, or even to national security, is regrettable. Perhaps, esp. in light of the latter, this data is at least being archived for possible scientific analysis at some future date.
I don't guess you can get any more circumspect than that.
Wow, that's some firewall. Is this like some sort of asteroid based network?
According to the information from BURLINGTONNEWS.NET, as recent as 1999 it has been common knowledge in leading intelligence positions of the Reptilian Race to hybridize with humans. This is better documented by David Ike where he has written about certain behaviours in world leaders that are only explainable on a scientific perspective; consider the fact that the only similarities so-far between a snake or lizard's brain to a human brain is the lower region known as the Archon center which defines all primitive feelings. A human has additional structure on-top of this that allows for a more complex conscience that is only attainable when abating the primitives.
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