Eye on the Robots.
Finally the Obama administration makes a choice for NASA administrator, Charles F. Bolden, both a military veteran and an astronaut veteran, as previewed by Bob Zimmerman Sunday 10. The work for Bolden is prodigious. The shuttle program will be extended, the moon base will be postponed at least a few years beyond the 2020 target date, and the ISS must be completed. The cut-backs at NASA are widespread, not only in the delay of the Aries rocket booster but also the Orion capsule that was to be the next generation of manned spacecraft for Earth and lunar orbit. My eye is on the robots for the solar system exploration. Kepler is up and ready for genius discoveries (right); Hubble is repaired and awaiting operations; the James Webb telescope in line; the lunar, Mercury, Venus Mars and Saturn bots continue.What Is To Be Done?
A long-range, war-fighting concern is that the deposed NASA boss Mike Griffin was a savvy administrator, and he was removed by an aimless, clumsy, cynical decision by the Obama team committed to cutting costs and putting NASA's missions on a low priority. These decisions were made during the fear of of the cliff-diving markets. These decisions look now to have been hasty. Will Bohlen review cost-cutting? Will Aries and Orion be restored to aggressive production schedules? What about the moon base? The moon base is not idle flag-planting. Stratfor's George Friedman's sweeping, convincing scenario for global conflict in the year 2050 (above, re his "The Next One Hundred Years") began with a sneak attack of missiles against US battle stars launched from a Japanese moon base. The high ground. If you toss this scenario aside, I remind you that in February 1898, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, TR, ordered the Admiral of the US Pacific fleet, Dewey (right), to acquire plenty of Welsh coal for a pending attack on the Spanish fleet at Manila. Four and five inch naval guns against unarmored, protected cruisers battled for supremacy of the Pacific. Half a century later, the American commander in the Pacific, MacArthur, supremely lord of the Pacific with the American fleet and Air Force, asked the POTUS, Truman, to use atomic bombs against a massed million Chinese and Korean soldiers. Half a century after that, the American commander in the Middle East, Petraeus, supremely lord of the Atlantic, India and Pacific oceans, uses satellite-directed robots to hunt genocidal guerillas in the Hindu Kush. Half a century from now, it is credible that the US supports orbiting battle stars, like an orbiting Starship Enterprise, that dominate organized opponents on the planet, such as, in George Friedman's projection, the Axis coalition of Japan and Turkey versus the Allied coalition of North America and Western Europe. The moon bases to be built by China, India, Japan, Russia, Germany, the EU and the United States become critical gun platforms -- like Dewey's Olympia, like MacArthur's B-29s, like Petraeus's Predators. NASA is national defense for the 22nd century.
I do not see the defense of the nation as being one of President Obama's primary concerns. While it's difficult to judge which - military objectives or man's innate curiosity - is the driving force behind space exploration, it is certain that it all has resulted (and will continue to result) in military advantage to those chiefly involved as well as in the practical availability of new gadgets for the public to enjoy.
My own instinct tells me that human curiosity will continue to be the primary impetus for exploration of any kind. A secondary motive stems from man's eternal struggle to break free of the chains of bubble earth. This speaks to the reason why many mainlanders, after having reached the Hawaiian island paradise, find themselves feeling unaccountably vexed. This is because they instinctively know that driving only for a short time in any direction will land them on some shore that blocks any further progress. This phenomenon, by the way, applies even to people who might never even have thought of leaving the confines of their own towns while living stateside.
As such, we continue to scan the sky for signs of intelligent life, or for planets that could in theory support any life at all. Please allow me to mention a planet that has been slowly and steadily ascending while we quite unnecessarily run ourselves ragged trying to slay the phantoms of our own making: China.
According to B. Raman’s missive today, China has been working hard to expand its consumer base. It’s been doing so with a combination of tax cuts and incentives - ironically, just the opposite of what the Obama (yes we can) administration has been doing. China has also reaffirmed its willingness to continue buying U.S. Treasuries, thereby keeping the Americans on a short leash. China is hardly suicidal as Iran (or even America) appears to be. It is actively planning for the future, securing energy and other resources wherever it can. They’re strengthening their military capabilities. They’re quick to deal with international issues that affect them directly while pursuing a hands-off strategy towards those that specifically serve to weaken the West. Again, every and all China’s policies are directly antithetical to those currently being pursued by the West.
On it’s present course China cannot help but succeed while America fails. This will not happen tomorrow or next week. It is the long term strategy of a patient people. But it is bound to happen unless a black swan intercedes deus ex machina to reset the table.
PREDICTING THE FUTURE IS LIKE BANKERS' BONUSES
It is getting paid today for something that may or may not work out.
Clearly Stratfor's strategy, for itself, is a money maker.
Mike - George Friedman clearly hasn't been following the news. With our education system being what it is, I doubt we'll have the brains to follow through on all he's envisioning.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us". - Pogo
NASA, great agency, Deserves a Nobel Prize for all the scientific discoveries they have done.
Hubble has been a one of Humanity's greatest successes, as well as all the Mars Probes and Voyager.
NASA's manned projects: Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle, and the Int'l Space Station have provided minimal scientific discoveries and incredibly expensive joyrides for elite military jockeys, scientists, and an occasional Senator and Prince. Two dozen Astronauts and several Cosmonauts have died.
Moonbase! What a waste of tax dollars. Just feeding an astronaut will cost millions a year. It will cost trillions so a few daring people will slowly lose the calcium in their bones due to low-G living. Worthless!
Wisdom
Peter - It's not just our education system that's lacking, it's our immigration policy. We discriminate against doctors, scientists, engineers -- anyone with a good foreign education -- so they, theoretically, won't take jobs away from Americans.
A friend from South America, who is an immigrant, told me that the reason many Latinos have trouble learning English is because they're peasants who don't have have a basic understanding of Spanish grammar.
It's not just... You're right! It's everything. But it all starts with education. Kids can't even write (if they can write at all) a pro-American essay in school anymore without getting marked down. Science has to be in support of (the) 'global warming' (hoax). Forget about history; economics...
Schools in the U.S. have become as politically insular as Islamic madrassahs. It's the source of militant, anti-American propaganda. Seen as a failure by some, it's a success for the statists, and all those whose aim is to deconstruct this once great nation and rebuild it using the Marxist template with an emphasis on revolution and forced re-distribution of wealth.