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US Air Force Wants To Plasma Bomb The Sky To Improve Radio Communication (newscientist.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: [The U.S. Air Force has plans to improve radio communication over long distances by detonating plasma bombs in the upper atmosphere using a fleet of micro satellites. It's not the first time we've tried to improve radio communication by tinkering with the ionosphere. HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Alaska, stimulates the ionosphere with radiation from ground-based antennas to produce radio-reflecting plasma.] Now the USAF wants to do this more efficiently, with tiny satellites -- such as CubeSats -- carrying large volumes of ionized gas directly into the ionosphere. As well as increasing the range of radio signals, the USAF says it wants to smooth out the effects of solar winds, which can knock out GPS, and also investigate the possibility of blocking communication from enemy satellites. [There are at least two major challenges. One is building a plasma generator small enough to fit on a CubeSat -- roughly 10 centimeters cubed. Then there's the problem of controlling exactly how the plasma will disperse once it is released. The USAF has awarded three contracts to teams who are sketching out ways to tackle the approach. The best proposal will be selected for a second phase in which plasma generators will be tested in vacuum chambers and exploratory space flights.]
where ionosphere bounce is rapidly becoming an outdated method.
Hate to break it to you, buddy, but it's still the only infrastructure-free method of global communication, which means it's just as effective as when it was first discovered. Your massive satellite/cable network is great for when everyone's playing nice and is OK with a small group of people having control of almost all the information flow, and your ionospheric propagation remains good otherwise.
tl;dr Progress is good, but should not be misidentified nor misinterpreted. 2.
This said, changing propagation characteristics of the ionosphere seems to be a crap idea. Or, rather, it's an obvious idea with consequences that haven't really been thought through.
Eventually China will surpass the US in both economic activity, and probably, military spending. You will one day look back upon US hegemony with nostalgia. As counterproductive and clumsy as US foreign policy is, it rarely includes expansion or annexation.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
They think they're looking forward to it, but the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and I can guarantee the Chinese hegemon won't taste so good.
In any case, just having a powerful economy or military isn't a free ticket to global domination, they'd need to work for it and something tells me they wouldn't be unopposed.
So let me get this straight: We all have to worry about Hairspray, Cow Farts, and every other perceived man-made cause of "Climate Change" (f/k/a "Global Warming"); but now we want to intentionally "pollute" the ionosphere?
What could possibly go wrong?