Pentagon's SPS project moving forward

"Rick Jones" wrote in message
...
Jonathan wrote:
Another thing, the Pentagon wouldn't move forward like this without
the blessing of the White House. I'm almost speechless at the
thought of that.

While born and raised in DC, I'm far from a DC-insider, but from what
I can remember of those days, and those working for a large company, I
wouldn't be at all surprised that something of even moderate size could
grow and blossom in the Executive branch without the direct attention
or knowledge of the White House.


I grew up in the DC area too. You're right that plenty can get
past everyone. I remember when the NRO built a shining new
$300 million headquarters and Congress never knew until
it was built. At least no one in Congress would admit knowing.
But launching into orbit anything that could be considered a
weapon is a rather sensitive topic lately. It could upset the
Chinese no end. Who knows, maybe the whole thing is some
ploy to gain a bargaining chip. It seems to me the fist report
of considering a study was the trial balloon. They should know
by now what the White House thinks.

But nothing would surprise me anymore.


Of course, now that it has become very public, one _can_ ass-u-me that
its continued existence would imply the White House does not wish to
quash it.


Maybe. This new project seems to be following the same kind
of path the 'Vision' did. The Vision concept was formed
by some White House jr staffers with an interest in space.
They kicked it up and up and eventually it became policy.
This new SSP project had a grass roots kind of origin from
inside the Pentagon. And they still have a year or two
to 'lock it in' if they hurry up and start spending.




rick jones
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On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:28:56 -0400, in a place far, far away,
"Jonathan" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Maybe. This new project seems to be following the same kind
of path the 'Vision' did. The Vision concept was formed
by some White House jr staffers with an interest in space.
They kicked it up and up and eventually it became policy.
This new SSP project had a grass roots kind of origin from
inside the Pentagon. And they still have a year or two
to 'lock it in' if they hurry up and start spending.

They aren't spending. They have no budget. The study was done on a
shoestring, with Internet volunteers.

Damien Valentine wrote:

The DoD may have a lot of money to pour into the program, even if it's
not fiscally sound. But it had a lot of money to pour into other
programs too, and we never saw hide nor hair of them. In the "High
Frontier" thread, Monte Davis pointed out,



What I can't figure out is why the DOD thinks this is a viable means of
supplying power to deployed troops on the ground. You need a rectenna to
convert the microwaves back into electricity, and it's not a small piece
of equipment to drag around with the troops in the field. Their drawings
show high voltage lines coming from the rectenna to where the power is
needed, but in a combat situation those be going to be almost impossible
to string and very susceptible to sabotage.
Portable diesel generators make a lot more sense than this approach.

Because DoD/intel has a much bigger budget than NASA, and because in
the early years they did so much of the R&D heavy lifting for ICBMs
and recon satellites, there's a temptation to get over-excited about
signs of interest on their part. But their track record of zoomy
Powerpoints leading nowhere (and before those, slide shows and
overheads and easel presentations) is every bit as long as that of
civilian space advocates.


Don't forget "Hot Eagle" the end result of someone watching "Aliens" and
"Starship Troopers" way too often:
http://op-for.com/2006/07/marines_wa...e_plane_1.html

Pat

Rick Jones wrote:

Of course, now that it has become very public, one _can_ ass-u-me that
its continued existence would imply the White House does not wish to
quash it.


Cheney's nutjob friends over at The Project For A New American Century
were very big on seizing control space for the U.S.:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
Their paper "Rebuilding America's Defenses" had a whole section related
to space power:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/Re...asDefenses.pdf
The organization has pretty much folded due to their brilliant idea of
invading Iraq not going quite as planned.

Pat