This comes as a shock? China is becoming the US post WWII - the only major manufacturing giant with cheap labor, no concerns about pollution and a centralized management system that keeps its eye on the prize.
All we need is one more administration like the last to lose everything. As it stands, we are following the Brit's decline and loss of empire.
The very idea that we should detonate nukes in the atmosphere is nuts. It is even more absurd as a defense to incoming weapons from enemies that don't exist any longer (China owns our debt; Russia has enough to deal with from the former client states) and Israel, N. Korea, India and Pakistan don't have ICBM delivery systems.
WHO are we developing this new system to defend against?
No matter what velocity the rocket is traveling at any extruded substance will be carried by the bernoulli effect around the rocket. It is just a potential method of defeating a laser.
You are correct. The one I saw in Seattle made the fastest transcontinental flight on record - less than an hour.
The beast is TI and leaks like a sieve until it is up to temp so it is constantly being refueled during missions. I expect that was the problem that killed the SR-71.
As I've said, the system may be defeated by something as simple as a mirror or something far more elaborate. I simply pointed out that the system is far from a silver bullet.
I've used kilowatt YAG lasers with 1st surface mirrors in optical labs without problem.
What I suggested would be just one potential way of eliminating the new weapon's effectiveness. Pay me a lot of money and I'll find a defense. Just like any serious superpower would.
Hey, wait a minute, we are the only superpower left.... WTF?
So most of the atmospheric issues would appear to have been solved.
Or, they used an optimum testing environment. We have had the target craft carrying a transponder to make the target easy to find, if not hit, in the "star wars" missile defense tests.
And, what "bad guys are you referring to? Russia and China are not a problem. Pakistan, India, Israel, and N. Korea don't have ICBM delivery systems. No other middle east foe is a credible threat today.
Kim Jong-il is 68 years old. N. Korea has no ICBM technology. The nation is the poorest excuse for an enemy that the US has had in hundreds of years.
N. Korea is under constant scrutiny - we can, and would, eliminate that nation with a first strike. We don't need to develop yet another weapons system to deal with a caveman....
Still, who are we defending against? China wants to be the planet's manufacturing giant. India and Pakistan have very limited range delivery systems. A middle east foe does not seem to be a reasonable threat for a few decades. Russia and the former client states are unable to maintain the systems they have now, much less put themselves into another arms race.
The costs will be ours, alone. How bankrupting the nation on the cross of superior military technology will make the US safer is lost on me.
They still have to be in the right place at the right time. Also, loss of the technology is entirely possible when using UAVs. Suppose you just ran out of fuel and the self-destruct mechanism fails?
It is merely a single contrarian idea. The laser tests would be visible from orbit - and frequency/energy could be sampled as simply by mere spectroscopy: the interaction between radiation and matter as a function of wavelength and easily measured. Displaced / superheated air will reveal the operating wavelength and energy density of the laser.
If we are talking dye lasers or tunable cavity lasers - you still have massive problems dealing with the excitation as frequencies change. It might well prove to be too complex to fit aboard an aircraft.
I built the Scientific American CO2 Laser project back in the 1960s - it was impressive and it could shatter glass at more than 100 ft. Still, the energy necessary to power an airborne device is going to have to be stored - probably in banks of capacitors.
Realistically, an aircraft mounted rail gun might serve just as well and be far less complex to deal with (absent the effects on the aircraft of the massive magnetic impulse).
Our anti-rocket defenses have been gross failures. This technology has a long way to go to be viable. Meanwhile, we spend vast sums on this technology when we really ought to be looking to get outside of Earth orbit. 40 years is 30 years too long. We ought to have manned Moon and Mars bases by now.
My brother-in-law analyzed satellite throw weights for Sandia Labs. A reflective or camo paint job is a trivial addition to the mass of the rocket. OTOH, a perfectly polished surface might well serve the same end at no addition to the mass.
Refraction, reflection, dispersion and absorption. Those are the problems.
How many Joules does it take to burn through silica dust? How reflective is LOX? What if the inbound craft is covered with retro-reflecting beads (like stop signs)?
I find it hard to accept that the entity that has created "hardened" OSs for the military would be "allowed to fail."
Given the good things that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation do and the SF Museum (and, sports team(s)) that Paul Allen founded/owns - I'm happy that Steve Ballmer will be the weasel at the wheel when the rats flee....
What Microsoft has is MONEY. Money buys a lot of dying time.
The companies that self destructed did it by making major changes to their product line while undercapitalized and watching their sales drop off before they could field the new products.
Micro$oft has enough money to screw this up for a decade - possibly, two.
Who knows, they may become a niche product - Ralph Reed has been through the MS campus - could he be the new "software evangelist" MS needs for a niche existence?
The Kindle has abolished an established copyright right - the first sale doctrine that allows you to give, resell or trash a copy of a book or other tangible work.
I took my name off of my Amazon reviews last year when JB decided I should drop from 3100 rank to about 50,000. Amazon has become too big and too stupid and sooner or later they will fail. I won't be short-selling Amazon anytime soon - but they have lost my trust and that ought to keep JB up nights....
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Dog bites man, news at 11:00.
This comes as a shock? China is becoming the US post WWII - the only major manufacturing giant with cheap labor, no concerns about pollution and a centralized management system that keeps its eye on the prize.
All we need is one more administration like the last to lose everything. As it stands, we are following the Brit's decline and loss of empire.
A planet-based high impulse laser in the UV range would make an effective satellite killer.
All I have tried to convey is that the technology is flawed and expensive. Whatever happens, there will be a workaround a laser defense.
Are the Helium-filled balloons optional for that lawn chair?
If your idea of an anti-missile is a nuke, yeah it is effective - about as effective as horseshoes played with hand grenades.
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4925129/description.html
is the patent for the transponder - enabled target missile.
The very idea that we should detonate nukes in the atmosphere is nuts. It is even more absurd as a defense to incoming weapons from enemies that don't exist any longer (China owns our debt; Russia has enough to deal with from the former client states) and Israel, N. Korea, India and Pakistan don't have ICBM delivery systems.
WHO are we developing this new system to defend against?
No matter what velocity the rocket is traveling at any extruded substance will be carried by the bernoulli effect around the rocket. It is just a potential method of defeating a laser.
You are correct. The one I saw in Seattle made the fastest transcontinental flight on record - less than an hour.
The beast is TI and leaks like a sieve until it is up to temp so it is constantly being refueled during missions. I expect that was the problem that killed the SR-71.
As I've said, the system may be defeated by something as simple as a mirror or something far more elaborate. I simply pointed out that the system is far from a silver bullet.
I've used kilowatt YAG lasers with 1st surface mirrors in optical labs without problem.
What I suggested would be just one potential way of eliminating the new weapon's effectiveness. Pay me a lot of money and I'll find a defense. Just like any serious superpower would.
Hey, wait a minute, we are the only superpower left.... WTF?
So most of the atmospheric issues would appear to have been solved.
Or, they used an optimum testing environment. We have had the target craft carrying a transponder to make the target easy to find, if not hit, in the "star wars" missile defense tests.
And, what "bad guys are you referring to? Russia and China are not a problem. Pakistan, India, Israel, and N. Korea don't have ICBM delivery systems. No other middle east foe is a credible threat today.
Deuterium-based fusion reactors are one thing. Aircraft mounted laser weapons are something entirely different.
And, exactly how do we exit the planet's gravity well with fusion power? Steam?
Kim Jong-il is 68 years old. N. Korea has no ICBM technology. The nation is the poorest excuse for an enemy that the US has had in hundreds of years.
N. Korea is under constant scrutiny - we can, and would, eliminate that nation with a first strike. We don't need to develop yet another weapons system to deal with a caveman....
Agreed.
Still, who are we defending against? China wants to be the planet's manufacturing giant. India and Pakistan have very limited range delivery systems. A middle east foe does not seem to be a reasonable threat for a few decades. Russia and the former client states are unable to maintain the systems they have now, much less put themselves into another arms race.
The costs will be ours, alone. How bankrupting the nation on the cross of superior military technology will make the US safer is lost on me.
It is a costly idea with serious limitations.
I enjoyed seeing (and coming close enough to touch) a SR-22 Blackbird at the Boeing museum in Seattle. Never saw a B-52 up close and personal.
They still have to be in the right place at the right time. Also, loss of the technology is entirely possible when using UAVs. Suppose you just ran out of fuel and the self-destruct mechanism fails?
It is merely a single contrarian idea. The laser tests would be visible from orbit - and frequency/energy could be sampled as simply by mere spectroscopy: the interaction between radiation and matter as a function of wavelength and easily measured. Displaced / superheated air will reveal the operating wavelength and energy density of the laser.
If we are talking dye lasers or tunable cavity lasers - you still have massive problems dealing with the excitation as frequencies change. It might well prove to be too complex to fit aboard an aircraft.
I built the Scientific American CO2 Laser project back in the 1960s - it was impressive and it could shatter glass at more than 100 ft. Still, the energy necessary to power an airborne device is going to have to be stored - probably in banks of capacitors.
Realistically, an aircraft mounted rail gun might serve just as well and be far less complex to deal with (absent the effects on the aircraft of the massive magnetic impulse).
Our anti-rocket defenses have been gross failures. This technology has a long way to go to be viable. Meanwhile, we spend vast sums on this technology when we really ought to be looking to get outside of Earth orbit. 40 years is 30 years too long. We ought to have manned Moon and Mars bases by now.
My brother-in-law analyzed satellite throw weights for Sandia Labs. A reflective or camo paint job is a trivial addition to the mass of the rocket. OTOH, a perfectly polished surface might well serve the same end at no addition to the mass.
Refraction, reflection, dispersion and absorption. Those are the problems.
How many Joules does it take to burn through silica dust? How reflective is LOX? What if the inbound craft is covered with retro-reflecting beads (like stop signs)?
And, that aircraft has to be ready and at altitude.... Are we going back to routine sorties similar to the old B-52 runs? How much will that cost??
But the aircraft has to be clear of clouds, sand and fog....
What prevents the target from cloaking itself in LOX fog, by venting ?
Phasers - to attack rockets - if it is not raining...or foggy, or dusty.
What else can I say - you nailed it.
I find it hard to accept that the entity that has created "hardened" OSs for the military would be "allowed to fail."
Given the good things that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation do and the SF Museum (and, sports team(s)) that Paul Allen founded/owns - I'm happy that Steve Ballmer will be the weasel at the wheel when the rats flee....
What Microsoft has is MONEY. Money buys a lot of dying time.
The companies that self destructed did it by making major changes to their product line while undercapitalized and watching their sales drop off before they could field the new products.
Micro$oft has enough money to screw this up for a decade - possibly, two.
Who knows, they may become a niche product - Ralph Reed has been through the MS campus - could he be the new "software evangelist" MS needs for a niche existence?
The Kindle has abolished an established copyright right - the first sale doctrine that allows you to give, resell or trash a copy of a book or other tangible work.
I took my name off of my Amazon reviews last year when JB decided I should drop from 3100 rank to about 50,000. Amazon has become too big and too stupid and sooner or later they will fail. I won't be short-selling Amazon anytime soon - but they have lost my trust and that ought to keep JB up nights....