that when dems stopped the drilling in the gulf due to a massive oil spill, that the dems were blamed for impeding progress and destroying America, but now that a republicans gets a few tremors in his state, he wants to stop it quickly? Likewise, here in Colorado, the cities that have republicans in control have put temp stops to fracking in THEIR areas, calling it prudent, yet want us to continue fracking all over, importing oils from places like Nigeria, Iran, Venezeula, etc. and absolutely are opposed to spending money on electric cars?
And ppl do not understand why I WANT us to continue drilling all over USA. I figure that once Americans start to get earthquakes, polluted waters esp. in our aquifiers, and see the repercussions of this 'clean' source of jobs, then MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, we will finally figure out that we need to change our policy. And I can not think of anything that would be better then to get the west off imported energy (other than to add that we quit importing bad goods and food from china).
Nope. I have been writing here that IBM, GE, Dell, etc. are nothing but immoral companies. Heck, pointed out about the IBM's cooperation with NAZIs, and yet we get fools that scream that it was a one time thing. Most of AMerica's large businesses are worthless POS. What amazes me, is that most of the R&D that America paid for, is simply being handed over to China, but IBM wants America to pay them to do a super computer here, but have it built in China.
Just worthless POSs at IBM. I am glad that I am out of there now.
I have been thinking about a oven design for baking food with. Basically, put an inner oven of high temps (say 450F) inside of another oven(350F or so) which goes inside of another (275F), down to something for drying with. Then do some solar thermal work. My only problem with that, is that solar PV is now much cheaper than solar thermal. That changes the economics of it.
I have seen a few manufacturing kilns before. But there is always the question of what to do with waste heat (and there is ALWAYS waste heat, except for microwaves and light).
Lithium ion requires over 1300C, not the nice low temps of glass. A high temp reactor is not overkill for mass production of lithium. In fact, it has the advantage of not converting from heat to steam to mechanical to electricity back to heat. Instead, is makes DIRECT use of the heat, thereby jumping the efficiency rate way up (and the costs way down).
As to the waste, thorium is fairly low waste and not an issue. We used it at Ft. St. vrain and it was at 1K C. All that is needed is a little bit more heat to bring up for one process. But a direct heat like this makes a lot of sense, esp. when something as simple as helium can carry the heat without radioactive products.
Yeah, jumping from 15-16% up to 20% while lowering costs is just not worth the effort. Why anytime that you get 25-33% improvement while dropping costs is just not worth it.
ANd you wonder why America is losing out to China?
Personally, I have been thinking that GA's high temp thorium reactor would make good sense to use for li and other ingredient processing. Use the secondary heat for other processes, including electrical generation.
Of course, those big boxes are easy to destroy in china since the Chinese gov. LIMITS them. As such, the *marts are destroying their own set of customers. With this regard, the rest of the west is MUCH MUCH smarter than is America today.
It is funny how that works. Here in America, we have become our worst enemies. Our retailers, esp. the big boxes, buy from guys that have factories back in China. And local retailers will not carry local stuff, even though they get loads of requests. So, they carry things like EXPENSIVE EU and japanese goods, or cheap chinese one.
The true expense of Li-ion batteries is that they are heated to something like 900C. Hellish to say the least. Is there a way to lower that cost? That would drop the costs of li-ion batteries a great deal.
It will take a long time for them to rebuild. And once that ability is destroyed, then perhaps Israel can FINALLY make some peace. As it is, Iran is to the middle east what Cantor is to America.
You really need to get out of your parent's basement. Subburn is supersonic at Mach 3. The US is closest to having hypersonic cruise missiles at this time is the X51 which will do Mach 5 to 10.
Why not, American's who have no idea where even the Middle East IS
... (the) Majorit(y) of the Americans know where the middle east is
(fixed an error due to dealing with a 5 y.o.)
So, the conversation was about the middle east, and yet, you switch it to specific nations there and use a 5 y.o. survey. Likewise, you hammer up about LOCAL pronunciations of nations. Hell, most ppl around here do not call iran. They call it Persia. But it is whatever YOU want to call it. Likewise, is it Nippon to you? After all, that is the CORRECT name for that nation and that is what THEY call it. Or do you call it Japan thereby inflicting YOUR idea of what a nation should be called?
The ignorance is your own. When you get our of your parent's basement, then come back here.
Wow. your ignorance is just astounding. Majorit of the Americans know where the middle east is. And the fact that we have large populations of muslims here belies your statement. And yes, we DID lock up ppl in WW2, and apologized. We did not do it again. And as far as using a nuke, the only way that will happen is if Iran attacks with a nuke. IFF they do that, then you can expect that we WILL in fact send in a number of nukes into Iran.
No. We would destroy their military operations. Quickly. That is why the RQ-170 was there: mapping. If Iran attacks, they will lose what they have of their military in under a month. And then we will walk away.
I would also guess that if they decide to test a nuke during that time, that it would be suicidal.
Take a camera. Please, take pix and post them here for all to see.
Look, I am not a fan of what my past presidents have done. reagan and W are some of the worst presidents going. And I do not have a clue what O is up to. HOWEVER, Iranian gov. is NOT what you want in place. The fact is, that even the vast majority of Iranians do not want them. Of course, they will not like us telling them that they can build a bomb. Can not say that I blame them. W/neo-cons showed the world that if you have a nuke that powerful nations do not do anything (that includes his actions with North Korea and Pakistan).
But if you oppose America's policy, you would be better off building up web sites objecting to it. Or come over here and protest (that is freedom speaking). BUT, if you think that by going over there and enlisting that you will help to stop America, well, you are sadly without a bit of reason.
Actually, other than some of their satellites (via JPL), all of NASA's space program is BUILT by private companies. The shuttle, Constellation, SLS are just examples of private space building launch systems (or not in 2 of those cases).
Sadly, we have member of congress pushing to have USA do lift via SLS. Horrible mistake.
But considering that launch is fairly routine, it makes sense for NASA to leave it to private space.
Instead, if we can have multiple companies such as SpaceX, StratoLaunch, ULA with Dream Chaser/CST-100, and Blue Origin, along with Bigelow and/or IDC Dover for doing space stations, it leaves NASA free to focus on going to Mars and other locations. And no doubt private space will be all over the moon assuming that CONgress does block them from moving forward.
Well, to be fair, USSR/Russia, America, ESA, Japan, etc have all done their fair amount of pollution. In addition, none of us are doing enough to stop future debris.
Boeing has the corporate level-headiness that the new players lack. It's not ingenuity or enthusiasm that is needed, its finance, and the new players will run out of it eventually.
Really? So you think that a profitable company like SpaceX will run out of money? In 2015, they are launching more than once a month and that is without the FH. They have prices below what every other player in the industry does. And you think that they will be gone? What do you base that one?
Paul Allen is a businessman, so you can be sure his intentions have little to do with the greater good of humanity.
Actually, Paul has a great deal of humanity in his decisions. For example, when gates was pushing satellites, he was saying that internet over cable was the way to go. The industry wanted NOTHING to do with the internet. So, he created Charter Cable and had it target internet. The rest is history.
Likewise, he invested into Scaled Compostes to get them into winning the X-Prize. Even now, his new craft probably has more to do with pushing forward the industry than anything else. Is it based on business? I am not certain. BUT, it will allow Scaled to move into orbit, and it will help move a lot of money into spaceX as well.
Congress is actually the best thing you have going for you as far as controlling financial black holes. The US is straining under 15 trillion dollars of debt and a failing reserve currency. Your public health system is a shambles and the military hardware corporations continue to lobby for the pointless wars being carried off in far flung places that have little meaning to the common citizen. The Congress represents the people and is the symbol of the democracy and freedom you all so faithfully and blindly defend. Reigning in the pointless bureaucratic and academic paper shuffling inside NASA is something positive that Congress could achieve right now. Do you really need to still be spending $400 of taxpayer money on a spanner for some spacecraft that at most could offer a bunch of PHDs something to write a paper about when ordinary people can't even afford to own a home?
You must be kidding. CONgress is our nightmare. Much of our deficit is due to these bastards. When Boehner/O had a deal to drop spending 5 or 6 trillion (4-5 trillion in cuts and 1 trillion in tax increases), cantor jumped in and scaped it. When O had his bowles-simpson group coming up with a balanced budget plan, Cantor again prevented it by having his house members vote against it. Now, he prevents it from coming to the house floor for a vote.
Likewise, it was the neo-cons in the 90's that gutted NASA;
then ordered that NASA drop the shuttle, start Constellation, but provide no funding;
Then when Constellation was dead with a focus on multiple launchers from private space, Cantor pushed into place SLS.
Now, Cantor et al. are hard at work at killing off private space.
Why do they do this? Because they have the Constellation/SLS jobs located in their districts. SLS is NOT what is best for NASA. It is what is best for those scum buckets.
The one good news is that SpaceX will likely have human launch available around 201[45] regardless of what CONgress does. The reason is that between the likes of Allen and Bigelow and I am going to guess we will shortly see at least one other billioniare jump in, will want this up ASAP. And for them, they NEED multiple space stations in orbit as well as pushing for the moon.
Yes, but I don't see that changing any time soon. Our federal government is getting worse, not better.
It will remain this way for the next year. The good news is that there is an election next year. The problem is that we need to kill off all of CONgress which will likely not happen.
In the mean time, my guess is that paul allen is working to support private space. In particular, I would suspect that his recent stuff will give spacex the money to focus on human launch. I am hoping that either he or other billionaires will focus on private space and get human launch going. At that time, Bigelow Aerospace will jump all over it.
Sadly, Boeing has ZERO intention of doing this on their own.
I think this calls for a "pics or it didn't happen". Sorry, some nuclear engines on a drawing board somewhere amount to nothing if they're never built.
Still waiting on this one. I'll believe it when it happens.
Lets see. The Falcon 9 has made 2 launches without any major issues. The dragon capsule has done 1. In med feb., they will be launched for doing cargo to the ISS.
OSC is everybody else's equipment put together. Not likely to fail except for the parts that OSC actually built. And considering that they are not carrying a climate sat, I suspect that they will do just fine.
Last I heard, they were planning on scrapping the ISS in a couple of years and letting it fall back into the atmosphere because there's no funding, since we need to spend all our money on wars.
put together a space shuttle.
Flown a probe OUT of the solar system.
Put up multiple space stations.
These don't count, they're all from 40 years ago. When are the NASA-cheerers going to stop talking about the accomplishments of our grandparents like they're recent news? The ancient Romans did some really impressive things too, but you don't see the Italians running around talking about how great their aquaduct-building expertise is or how advanced their volcanic-ash concrete is.
The shuttle was from the 70s'. That is true.
HOWEVER, the probe that JUST went out of the solar system was launched 40 years ago. But New Horizons which launched in 2006 and will hit pluto in 2015. It is moving MUCH faster than voyagers and will leave the solar system around 2029 (i.e. a relatively short 23 years compared to the nearly 40 years for voyager).
Skylab was put up in the 70's. ISS in the 90's (actually, mostly 00's). Bigelow has 2 inflatable 'space stations' up there based on the work from NASA (more like coffins). If CONgress will quit screwing up, NASA will back Bigelow and other private space companies and get multiple space stations up there.
The problem is NOT NASA. It is CONgress. And for the last 20 years, it is the neo-cons that are NASA and their ability to accomplish things. THey are the ones that gutted NASA over and over.
And yet, he was "a member of the House National Security Committee and later a senior analyst with the Government Accountability Office.".
The previous is the group that works on national security policy, or policy for the DOD and other TLAs. The second was how to spend our money wisely. Most likely it had everything to do with the DOD, specifically DARPA. And you will find that R&D does not really correlate with field rations, boots, or logistics. It is always about trying to remove those items. After all, as you know, an army matches on its stomach. If you can remove the stomach, then you do not have to deal with rations, boots, medics, radios, AC for tents, traitors, etc. etc. etc.
Ours was done during the cold war. China supposedly has no cold war. In addition, we picked one that was low enough (345 miles) AND SMALL so that minimal parts. In fact, the sat parts are already cleared out of there. In 2002, there were only 2 known pieces left and they came down already. And this was because USSR had spent 30 years developing their IS system (apparently starting in the 50's). They took out a number of satellites, though it is unknown exactly how many. In fact, USSR had a full blown production military system designed to take out larger number of sats and esp. the shuttle. But that was the cold war.
China's target was monstrous large and high (550 miles). It was bigger than all of the previous sats put together (well, the ones known).
China's ASAT will have 60-90% of its mass in space in 100 years. As it is, USSRs multiple targets and USA's single target (excluding the malfunctioning sat that was taken out close to the edge of space) are no longer in space.
BTW, I agree with your criticism of our nation as far as interfering in other nations. We should not be doing that. We had zero business getting involved in Iraq, Libya, and now iran. As it is, the only nation that we had any business getting into was afghanistan. And W should have completed that before deciding to screw up so many other places. We really are too deep into messing with other nations rather than paying attention to our own business (reminds me of the USSR before its collapse).
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that when dems stopped the drilling in the gulf due to a massive oil spill, that the dems were blamed for impeding progress and destroying America, but now that a republicans gets a few tremors in his state, he wants to stop it quickly? Likewise, here in Colorado, the cities that have republicans in control have put temp stops to fracking in THEIR areas, calling it prudent, yet want us to continue fracking all over, importing oils from places like Nigeria, Iran, Venezeula, etc. and absolutely are opposed to spending money on electric cars?
And ppl do not understand why I WANT us to continue drilling all over USA. I figure that once Americans start to get earthquakes, polluted waters esp. in our aquifiers, and see the repercussions of this 'clean' source of jobs, then MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, we will finally figure out that we need to change our policy. And I can not think of anything that would be better then to get the west off imported energy (other than to add that we quit importing bad goods and food from china).
Look at the bottom.
That says it all. China is a disaster.
Nope. I have been writing here that IBM, GE, Dell, etc. are nothing but immoral companies. Heck, pointed out about the IBM's cooperation with NAZIs, and yet we get fools that scream that it was a one time thing. Most of AMerica's large businesses are worthless POS. What amazes me, is that most of the R&D that America paid for, is simply being handed over to China, but IBM wants America to pay them to do a super computer here, but have it built in China.
Just worthless POSs at IBM. I am glad that I am out of there now.
I have been thinking about a oven design for baking food with. Basically, put an inner oven of high temps (say 450F) inside of another oven(350F or so) which goes inside of another (275F), down to something for drying with. Then do some solar thermal work. My only problem with that, is that solar PV is now much cheaper than solar thermal. That changes the economics of it.
I have seen a few manufacturing kilns before. But there is always the question of what to do with waste heat (and there is ALWAYS waste heat, except for microwaves and light).
Lithium ion requires over 1300C, not the nice low temps of glass. A high temp reactor is not overkill for mass production of lithium. In fact, it has the advantage of not converting from heat to steam to mechanical to electricity back to heat. Instead, is makes DIRECT use of the heat, thereby jumping the efficiency rate way up (and the costs way down).
As to the waste, thorium is fairly low waste and not an issue. We used it at Ft. St. vrain and it was at 1K C. All that is needed is a little bit more heat to bring up for one process. But a direct heat like this makes a lot of sense, esp. when something as simple as helium can carry the heat without radioactive products.
Yeah, jumping from 15-16% up to 20% while lowering costs is just not worth the effort. Why anytime that you get 25-33% improvement while dropping costs is just not worth it.
ANd you wonder why America is losing out to China?
Generators?
Personally, I have been thinking that GA's high temp thorium reactor would make good sense to use for li and other ingredient processing. Use the secondary heat for other processes, including electrical generation.
Of course, those big boxes are easy to destroy in china since the Chinese gov. LIMITS them. As such, the *marts are destroying their own set of customers. With this regard, the rest of the west is MUCH MUCH smarter than is America today.
It is funny how that works. Here in America, we have become our worst enemies. Our retailers, esp. the big boxes, buy from guys that have factories back in China. And local retailers will not carry local stuff, even though they get loads of requests. So, they carry things like EXPENSIVE EU and japanese goods, or cheap chinese one.
The true expense of Li-ion batteries is that they are heated to something like 900C. Hellish to say the least. Is there a way to lower that cost? That would drop the costs of li-ion batteries a great deal.
It will take a long time for them to rebuild. And once that ability is destroyed, then perhaps Israel can FINALLY make some peace. As it is, Iran is to the middle east what Cantor is to America.
You really need to get out of your parent's basement. Subburn is supersonic at Mach 3. The US is closest to having hypersonic cruise missiles at this time is the X51 which will do Mach 5 to 10.
....
Why not, American's who have no idea where even the Middle East IS
... (the) Majorit(y) of the Americans know where the middle east is
(fixed an error due to dealing with a 5 y.o.)
So, the conversation was about the middle east, and yet, you switch it to specific nations there and use a 5 y.o. survey. Likewise, you hammer up about LOCAL pronunciations of nations. Hell, most ppl around here do not call iran. They call it Persia. But it is whatever YOU want to call it.
Likewise, is it Nippon to you? After all, that is the CORRECT name for that nation and that is what THEY call it. Or do you call it Japan thereby inflicting YOUR idea of what a nation should be called?
The ignorance is your own. When you get our of your parent's basement, then come back here.
Iran and Arabs hate each other.
Wow. your ignorance is just astounding. Majorit of the Americans know where the middle east is. And the fact that we have large populations of muslims here belies your statement. And yes, we DID lock up ppl in WW2, and apologized. We did not do it again. And as far as using a nuke, the only way that will happen is if Iran attacks with a nuke. IFF they do that, then you can expect that we WILL in fact send in a number of nukes into Iran.
No. We would destroy their military operations. Quickly. That is why the RQ-170 was there: mapping. If Iran attacks, they will lose what they have of their military in under a month. And then we will walk away.
I would also guess that if they decide to test a nuke during that time, that it would be suicidal.
Take a camera. Please, take pix and post them here for all to see.
Look, I am not a fan of what my past presidents have done. reagan and W are some of the worst presidents going. And I do not have a clue what O is up to. HOWEVER, Iranian gov. is NOT what you want in place. The fact is, that even the vast majority of Iranians do not want them. Of course, they will not like us telling them that they can build a bomb. Can not say that I blame them. W/neo-cons showed the world that if you have a nuke that powerful nations do not do anything (that includes his actions with North Korea and Pakistan).
But if you oppose America's policy, you would be better off building up web sites objecting to it. Or come over here and protest (that is freedom speaking). BUT, if you think that by going over there and enlisting that you will help to stop America, well, you are sadly without a bit of reason.
Actually, other than some of their satellites (via JPL), all of NASA's space program is BUILT by private companies. The shuttle, Constellation, SLS are just examples of private space building launch systems (or not in 2 of those cases).
Sadly, we have member of congress pushing to have USA do lift via SLS. Horrible mistake.
But considering that launch is fairly routine, it makes sense for NASA to leave it to private space.
Instead, if we can have multiple companies such as SpaceX, StratoLaunch, ULA with Dream Chaser/CST-100, and Blue Origin, along with Bigelow and/or IDC Dover for doing space stations, it leaves NASA free to focus on going to Mars and other locations.
And no doubt private space will be all over the moon assuming that CONgress does block them from moving forward.
Well, to be fair, USSR/Russia, America, ESA, Japan, etc have all done their fair amount of pollution. In addition, none of us are doing enough to stop future debris.
Boeing has the corporate level-headiness that the new players lack. It's not ingenuity or enthusiasm that is needed, its finance, and the new players will run out of it eventually.
Really? So you think that a profitable company like SpaceX will run out of money? In 2015, they are launching more than once a month and that is without the FH. They have prices below what every other player in the industry does. And you think that they will be gone? What do you base that one?
Paul Allen is a businessman, so you can be sure his intentions have little to do with the greater good of humanity.
Actually, Paul has a great deal of humanity in his decisions. For example, when gates was pushing satellites, he was saying that internet over cable was the way to go. The industry wanted NOTHING to do with the internet. So, he created Charter Cable and had it target internet. The rest is history.
Likewise, he invested into Scaled Compostes to get them into winning the X-Prize. Even now, his new craft probably has more to do with pushing forward the industry than anything else. Is it based on business? I am not certain. BUT, it will allow Scaled to move into orbit, and it will help move a lot of money into spaceX as well.
Congress is actually the best thing you have going for you as far as controlling financial black holes. The US is straining under 15 trillion dollars of debt and a failing reserve currency. Your public health system is a shambles and the military hardware corporations continue to lobby for the pointless wars being carried off in far flung places that have little meaning to the common citizen. The Congress represents the people and is the symbol of the democracy and freedom you all so faithfully and blindly defend. Reigning in the pointless bureaucratic and academic paper shuffling inside NASA is something positive that Congress could achieve right now. Do you really need to still be spending $400 of taxpayer money on a spanner for some spacecraft that at most could offer a bunch of PHDs something to write a paper about when ordinary people can't even afford to own a home?
You must be kidding. CONgress is our nightmare. Much of our deficit is due to these bastards. When Boehner/O had a deal to drop spending 5 or 6 trillion (4-5 trillion in cuts and 1 trillion in tax increases), cantor jumped in and scaped it. When O had his bowles-simpson group coming up with a balanced budget plan, Cantor again prevented it by having his house members vote against it. Now, he prevents it from coming to the house floor for a vote.
Likewise, it was the neo-cons in the 90's that gutted NASA;
then ordered that NASA drop the shuttle, start Constellation, but provide no funding;
Then when Constellation was dead with a focus on multiple launchers from private space, Cantor pushed into place SLS.
Now, Cantor et al. are hard at work at killing off private space.
Why do they do this? Because they have the Constellation/SLS jobs located in their districts. SLS is NOT what is best for NASA. It is what is best for those scum buckets.
The one good news is that SpaceX will likely have human launch available around 201[45] regardless of what CONgress does. The reason is that between the likes of Allen and Bigelow and I am going to guess we will shortly see at least one other billioniare jump in, will want this up ASAP. And for them, they NEED multiple space stations in orbit as well as pushing for the moon.
Yes, but I don't see that changing any time soon. Our federal government is getting worse, not better.
It will remain this way for the next year. The good news is that there is an election next year. The problem is that we need to kill off all of CONgress which will likely not happen.
In the mean time, my guess is that paul allen is working to support private space. In particular, I would suspect that his recent stuff will give spacex the money to focus on human launch. I am hoping that either he or other billionaires will focus on private space and get human launch going. At that time, Bigelow Aerospace will jump all over it.
Sadly, Boeing has ZERO intention of doing this on their own.
I think this calls for a "pics or it didn't happen". Sorry, some nuclear engines on a drawing board somewhere amount to nothing if they're never built.
The Rover/NERVA program accumulated 17 hours of operating time with 6 hours above 2000 K.
Still waiting on this one. I'll believe it when it happens.
Lets see. The Falcon 9 has made 2 launches without any major issues. The dragon capsule has done 1. In med feb., they will be launched for doing cargo to the ISS.
OSC is everybody else's equipment put together. Not likely to fail except for the parts that OSC actually built. And considering that they are not carrying a climate sat, I suspect that they will do just fine.
Last I heard, they were planning on scrapping the ISS in a couple of years and letting it fall back into the atmosphere because there's no funding, since we need to spend all our money on wars.
Currently slated for 2020, though extensions are being sought for 2025 or later.
put together a space shuttle. Flown a probe OUT of the solar system. Put up multiple space stations.
These don't count, they're all from 40 years ago. When are the NASA-cheerers going to stop talking about the accomplishments of our grandparents like they're recent news? The ancient Romans did some really impressive things too, but you don't see the Italians running around talking about how great their aquaduct-building expertise is or how advanced their volcanic-ash concrete is.
The shuttle was from the 70s'. That is true.
HOWEVER, the probe that JUST went out of the solar system was launched 40 years ago. But New Horizons which launched in 2006 and will hit pluto in 2015. It is moving MUCH faster than voyagers and will leave the solar system around 2029 (i.e. a relatively short 23 years compared to the nearly 40 years for voyager).
Skylab was put up in the 70's. ISS in the 90's (actually, mostly 00's). Bigelow has 2 inflatable 'space stations' up there based on the work from NASA (more like coffins). If CONgress will quit screwing up, NASA will back Bigelow and other private space companies and get multiple space stations up there.
The problem is NOT NASA. It is CONgress. And for the last 20 years, it is the neo-cons that are NASA and their ability to accomplish things. THey are the ones that gutted NASA over and over.
And yet, he was "a member of the House National Security Committee and later a senior analyst with the Government Accountability Office.". The previous is the group that works on national security policy, or policy for the DOD and other TLAs. The second was how to spend our money wisely. Most likely it had everything to do with the DOD, specifically DARPA. And you will find that R&D does not really correlate with field rations, boots, or logistics. It is always about trying to remove those items. After all, as you know, an army matches on its stomach. If you can remove the stomach, then you do not have to deal with rations, boots, medics, radios, AC for tents, traitors, etc. etc. etc.
Ours was done during the cold war. China supposedly has no cold war. In addition, we picked one that was low enough (345 miles) AND SMALL so that minimal parts. In fact, the sat parts are already cleared out of there. In 2002, there were only 2 known pieces left and they came down already. And this was because USSR had spent 30 years developing their IS system (apparently starting in the 50's). They took out a number of satellites, though it is unknown exactly how many. In fact, USSR had a full blown production military system designed to take out larger number of sats and esp. the shuttle. But that was the cold war.
China's target was monstrous large and high (550 miles). It was bigger than all of the previous sats put together (well, the ones known). China's ASAT will have 60-90% of its mass in space in 100 years. As it is, USSRs multiple targets and USA's single target (excluding the malfunctioning sat that was taken out close to the edge of space) are no longer in space.
And no, their space program is NOT just 'funded' from the same pot as their defense. Their space program is 100% part of their PLA. It answers directly to their military structure, not their president or even their party. Their is no arms length between PLA and CNSA. That is the reason why CNSA is developing quick response rockets. USSR's space program was arm lengths between military and space program, but USA's was totally 100% separate systems from USAF. Like USSR's, it did some items for USAF, but that was in the cold war. China is not supposed to be in a cold war with the west. Or have they formally declared it?
BTW, I agree with your criticism of our nation as far as interfering in other nations. We should not be doing that. We had zero business getting involved in Iraq, Libya, and now iran. As it is, the only nation that we had any business getting into was afghanistan. And W should have completed that before deciding to screw up so many other places. We really are too deep into messing with other nations rather than paying attention to our own business (reminds me of the USSR before its collapse).