[extropy-chat] Saving the Hubble

[Mike Lorrey]

--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury at aeiveos.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> 
> > I doubt the feds would go for this. Supposedly a few of the more
> recent
> > KH spy sats have extremely similar architecture to the Hubble. If a
> > Hubble can image a galaxy 13 billion light years away, think about
> what
> > one with slightly different optics can see here on earth.
> 
> Perhaps true, but the sales contract could prohibit pointing the
> telescope
> toward the Earth.  

Such refreshing naivete. The US has had SEVERE problems with dual use
technologies being sold to other countries. China, the example being
given, regularly claims technology is for civil purpose, but blithely
takes it off the shipping docks and sends it directly to military
facilities. From computers to machine tools, it just doesn't care what
the rest of the world thinks.

Most of the proliferation of ballistic and nuclear technology today can
be blamed directly on Chinese coopting of US technology for military
purpose as well as defections of US personnel of chinese descent, and
the occasional corporate betrayal (one US company having satellites
launched by the Chinese gave them technology to improve their
reliability and accuracy, to ensure the success of their own satellites
being launched, and now helps ensure the reliability and accuracy of
China's ICBM inventory). China is the number one proliferator of said
technology around the world, via North Korea and Pakistan, primarily.
Both Iran and Libya are now known to have gotten their technologies
from Pakistan, which was supplied by China as a lever against India.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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