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Science & Technology
Space arms race 'an inevitability' says PLA air force commander
2009-11-03
Posted by:Spanky Snoluns6838

#9  ION DAILYNEWS.PK > OKINAWA POLLS: MAJORITY WANT US AIR BASE MOVED. Either moved, andor ANY + ALL US MILBASES ON OKINAWA + MAINLAND JAPAN TO LEAVE PERMANENTLY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-11-03 21:04  

#8  The Chinese made loud noises about the militarization of space until they developed some launch capability and enough tech to do anti-satellite operations. Now it's inevitable. Space is the new high ground - has been for awhile, but now it's something we can fight over.



A couple points:



- Major advantage accrues in any conflict to whoever makes the first move and destroys the other guy's comm and observation assets. Rapid escalation follows as the deaf, dumb and blind guy assumes the worst.


- Blowing up satellites leaves a lot of junk in orbit. Clouds of fast moving orbital junk are both hard to get rid of and deadly to thing like space stations and satellites they collide with. War in space will leave a big mess.
Posted by: SteveS   2009-11-03 12:33  

#7  #6 IMHO Americans are very competative people. Give'm somebody to compete against, and they perform. Otherwise---what you said.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-11-03 10:01  

#6  Not quite g(r)om. It's been infected with the usual bureaucratic self perpetuating wonks in the program for multiple decades. It's vision was undermined like nearly everything else by the 'poverty guilt' crowd who always had another reason to implement soci@lism for those unwilling to be responsible by sucking out the money and vitality of the rest of society. It was exploited by the scientific community who thought they could get their very narrow needs of little practical application accomplished without understanding -

Gordon Cooper: You boys know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom: He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2009-11-03 09:43  

#5  Space-wise
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-11-03 09:32  

#4  Well we did invent Rogaine, those little blue pills, and the Internet G(r)om.
Posted by: Besoeker    2009-11-03 08:52  

#3  Good. USA spent the last two and a half decades sitting on its ass indulging in self-admiration
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-11-03 08:20  

#2  Yeah, it's inevitable because one side makes it so. The Chinese have this sense of destiny that says that they want to overthrow the USA and dominate the world themselves. The pendulum will one day soon swing from "Learn from the West" to "The West needs to learn from China now". The fact that the West never consented to this teacher/student|master/underline relationship is irrelevant. At one point the Chinese will consider themselves superior (many already do) and demand that the rest of the world follow their lead. There's no such thing as equality, only superior/inferior relationships.

Posted by: gromky   2009-11-03 02:34  

#1  Just so they don't litter space with umpteenth "Dollar Stores".
Posted by: borgboy   2009-11-03 02:05  

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