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Air Force Space Fence Being Shut Down
New submitter meglon writes "NASA will lose access to important real-time information on tracking orbital debris if the order of Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, is carried out. The Space Fence, the only monitoring system of its kind, will cease to function on October 1st. 'Deployed in the 1960s, the VHF Space Fence includes three transmitter sites and six receiving stations. It is responsible for approximately 40 percent of all observations performed by the Air Force-run Space Surveillance Network, which includes other ground-and space-based sensor assets, said Brian Weeden, technical adviser at the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space sustainability. ... A full-scale development contract for an updated version of the Space Fence had been expected in 2012 or early 2013, but on July 16, Shelton said the multibillion-dollar project is being held up due to a wide-ranging Pentagon review that includes major acquisition programs. The review is examining scenarios under which the Pentagon’s budget is cut by $150 billion, $250 billion and $500 billion during the next decade.'"
Just transfer all the money cut from the DOD to NASA. Then they can run it themselves! Genius, yes?
Somebody needs to buy it and run it. How much would it cost?
Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
Because countries who hate the United States would never throw things into space to try to harm Americans.
You'd think that Republicans would be big proponents of the space fence. We need something to keep illegal aliens out.
Just wait until a couple of communication satellites or the ISS get whanged by some of that debris that they track... Stuff will fly, and not in a good way!
It'll be done much cheaper and with only minor gaps in service, during which the chief overseer will be outside for a smoke or a natter on the mobile when Vlad Putin goes skydiving again and takes out a jet, which takes out a train, which takes out a factory, which takes out a utility pole, which takes out a school bus, which hits a motorcycle, which veers into a parking lot and hits the chief overseer, in the great granddaddy or unforeseen tragedies, for which the Pentagon will be blamed and blow up in the face of the president who will blame it on the House for continuing to muck around with budgets and sequestration in its usual bombast these days.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
No, it isn't important because it can't be used to spy on Americans. If it could, then it's budget would be secret. Instead we have this cut by short sighted budget concerns.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It has been replaced by a newer, more secret and much more expensive system that also functions as an interstellar surveillance system.
Well, at least we can still afford to defend against Brown People.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
The esteemed Gen. Shelton is playing politics. This is a standard trick. Whenever someone threatens or enacts budget cuts, politicians (and you don't get to be a general without being a politician) start shutting down things which may cost very little, but are highly noticeable or annoying. Obviously this demonstrates how catastrophic it would be to have your budget cut.
But be sure we keep the important stuff, like the president's constant vacations.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This is exactly the sort of thing government is for. It's not like I can set up a radar transmitter in my back yard and sell the data on the open market. I'm not allowed to use that spectrum, and it's blindingly obvious that if I were, so would everybody else, and the spectrum would rapidly become useless to everybody.
What's the alternative? Sell it to SpaceX? Then make NASA buy access to the data? And Lockheed. And Boeing. And Raytheon. And Virgin Galactic. And Blue Origin.
But we all know it wouldn't go that way. Lockheed or Boeing would lobby successfully to get to buy it, then charge everybody else on the list for access to the data. And refuse to sell data to SpaceX at all.
Three transmitters and six receivers costing billions is more than a little absurd, but the job does need doing, and needs doing in a fashion that doesn't set up a wholly inappropriate profit motive and an even more inappropriate opportunity to be anti-competitive. Having said that... Who runs those stations now? Wanna bet it's already Lockheed or Boeing or Raytheon? That'd be why it costs billions instead of the tens of millions it should cost. The wholly inappropriate cost-plus contract with profit motive is already in place. Now all we need is the anti-competitiveness to go with it.
Standard military doctrine. Oh, noes, our NSA and CIA are under attack! Quick, cue the headline-grabbing circus!
Problem solved, I'd like to submit my bid for your accounting contracting business Mr. DoD.
This is an incredibly stupid and short sighted idea as long as we maintain a manned space mission. At least once a year I see an article mentioning that the ISS has had to shift its orbit slightly in order to avoid a lethal collision with space junk. Who do you think gives them the heads up?
A full-scale development contract for an updated version of the Space Fence had been expected in 2012 or early 2013, but on July 16, Shelton said the multibillion-dollar project is being held up due to a wide-ranging Pentagon review that includes major acquisition programs.
Let me paraphrase: the multibillion-dollar project is being held up due to a wide-ranging political shenanigans.
If the defense budget is slashed, programs like this are first. God forbid we stop building drones fa18s and other killing machines. Of course right now I am at a country (trace adkins) concert with my girl, most people here think we should kill more terrists and this country is the shiznot. The chickfila right wing gay hating food truck has the longest line. This country deserves someone like chine to come in and really 'tea bag' something.
Silence is a state of mime.
If they shut it down we ham radio geeks will no longer be able to monitor the space fence signal and see the space debris and UFO orbiting over us. The ISS could also be in danger from surprise debris objects. Keep it operational, please! See my space fence object monitor captures at SATWATCH.ORG Thanks Mike
is isn't like satellites are really important to pretty much everything we do.....
The last time an American air defense system was deliberately shut down (by the dick Cheney), the false flag 9/11 occured, now, another air defense system is being shut down. Why? What's out there coming our way that the scum power elite don't want us to know?
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
What's gonna keep 'em in now?
The assumptions and pre-sumptions of the DoD Space Fence were wrong from the beginning. Billions of dollars have been wasted and can not be recovered.
The mass psychological madness that prevailed during the early to middle Cold war were just that; Madness and hysteria that became venerated public policy.
But now another Mad Man occupies the White House; Barak Obama.
His madness is to cast all USA citizens as Spies and Traitors and use the NSA to guarantee his blackmail and extortion in the name of preventing terror events.
This week saw the scuttling of USA embassies in the middle east and north Africa. Yet, the 'Terror Event' that Mr. Obama predicted was not against the USA, rather it was the USA's terror event of Drone killings throughout the region. What a murder this thing who calls itself Mr. Barak Obama.
Washington math:
Actual 2013 spending: $3 trillion
Desired 2014 spending: $3.5 trillion
Actual 2014 spending: $3.3 trillion
Bottom line, human math: $300 billion increase
Bottom line, Washington / Democrat math: $200 billion "cut"
I understand the sentiment, for sure.
Unfortunately, building fewer would cost more.
Building more and SELLING them saves a ton of money, and they are doing that.
Imagine if Apple spent a hundred million dollars developing the iPad and then only built 100 of them Each iPad would cost a million dollars. If they built 1,000 the development cost is $1000 each. It's the same with new fighter jets. Building 50 or 100 of them is DUMB with nine zeroes because you've already paid most of the cost, the development cost. The smart thing is what we've done with some other planes - build enough to last 50 years so you don't have to spend another few hundred billion developing another fighter ten years from now.
As an example for you, in the 1930s and 1940s, they built over 10,000 C-47s. Production stopped in 1946 and they are still being used today. Spread over 10,000 units, development cost is thousands per plane. If you build 100 planes, per-plane development cost is billions.
Another example is the B-52, a 1950s plane. They built enough that the US Air Force still uses them 60 years later.
For fighters, the F-100 was produced in enough quantity that it lasted around 30-40 years. That's a shit ton cheaper than spending billions every few years to build 50 of a particular design.
Feeling threatened? Boxed in? Bullied? Congress gonna try and cut off the money spigot? Well, just kill a valuable, high-profile project that costs you nothing! Maybe something that puts people out of work. Get the TV cameras on that and the money will start gushing again. I guarantee it!
Remember what happened to it: instead of upgrading it to provide near-GNSS accuracy, they killed it, eliminating the only terrestrial nav/pos system outside of major airports and air traffic lanes. If we have another Carrington-size solar event or someone decides to deploy their satellite-killer missles/satellites/sharks-with-lasers/whatever, WE HAVE NO SAFETY NET for nav/pos as well as network synchronization!
They've already proven once they're willing to sacrifice the country's safety against outside forces (while simultaneously building up their off-, er, defensive capabilities against their own citizenry), so what makes you think they won't do it again?
There a plenty of systems that are tracking satellites and debris in space.
NORAD is doing exactly that, and even more: NORAD satellites data is free to access.
http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/
Are you seriously saying that the federal budget increase of 24% from 2008 to 2011 was to keep up with INFLATION, which was 4%? Government growth is out of control and inflation is not any significant factor. There are no cuts there, not
The President proposes to spend $3.8 trillion in 2014, an increase of 10% over 2012. Inflation was 4%. Explain to me again how a 6% increase after inflation is a massive cut?