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Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#151

Post by tabs_masterrace »

walterbell wrote: post #95

More on the "power-beaming technology", https://www.livescience.com/microwave-beam-military-space-pl... > ... test the idea of using microwave beams to send solar power to Earth from space ... Build a big solar array in orbit, the idea goes, and it could collect enough sunlight (unfiltered by atmospheric effects or clouds,) to generate a powerful beam of microwaves. A collection station on Earth would then convert th…

The Navy has also demonstrated laser based transmission of energy recently: https://www.nrl.navy.mil/news/releases/researchers-transmit-...

They are talking about beaming power to drones, but thinking a bit larger, I wonder if it be feasible to have a high power laser transmit energy to a satellite and then have a cluster ala Starlink act as an relay to direct the power potentially anywhere on earth. Maybe you could power airplanes from space? Sounds like Sci-Fi, but apparently all the components and technologies exist, and people must have been working on it for a while, when they just letting the public in on it.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#152

Post by jacobush »

mschuster91 wrote: post #46
jacobush wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone hacked my computer - it looks like the president of the United States of America is posting some kind of ironic meme video about himself on Twitter.

Not the first time he did this ( https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/12251747139929907... ). It's ... awkward to watch this as an European.

I wrote a half satire thing about how the Trump became on office, ostensibly voted to by congress, but somehow they always vote a Trump descendant into office. For life.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#153

Post by softwarejosh »

justinator wrote: post #101
zipwitch wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…

I guess, but ISIS still seems to be a thing. Or in geek-speak. We have the Death Star, as we are the Empire. The Empire still lost.

yes lets draw direct analogies to science fiction lol

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#154

Post by TeMPOraL »

buckminstrix wrote: post #147
zipwitch wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…

Maybe the money is going to the secret space program. And one of the duties of the regular public military and security industry is to be a front.

Wouldn't that be nice. Like in StarGate SG-1, where a lot of things in the military budget fronted for the US pax-americaning our galactic neighbourhood and bringing useful tech back.

Alas, I worry that the secret space program is merely the rare not-totally-worthless exception to the overall rule.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#155

Post by TeMPOraL »

mhh__ wrote: post #16
pengaru wrote: post #4

"power-beaming technology"

Sarcasm? Even uBeam does work, it's just not very efficient

uBeam works only as the longest-running scam in the Sillicon Valley.

But workable options are in fact possible when you switch from ultrasounds to beaming EM radiation.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#156

Post by zaphirplane »

ericmcer wrote: post #61
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comes from the military budget; they can light Cuban cigars with hundred dollar bills as a rounding error. The US Navy has 11 large fleet aircraft carriers, 9 assault carriers, when the rest of the World considers two carriers to be a lot. Schools hold bake sales to buy supplies, the Pentagon/The Congress spends a Trillion USD on a new manned fighter we don't need just to shovel pork into as many Congressional d…

It’s hard to quantify because military supremacy and having the best weapons in the world is a huge part of why the dollar is THE global currency. And we can print dollars, hell we just printed 5 trillion in a couple weeks. This gives us insane leverage when it comes to foreign debts because most debts are in dollars. The dollars for military budget and the dollars raised by a school fundraiser are not even the same…

I am not sure military supremacy goes hand in hand with economic advantage, eg german and japan are great examples till very recently.

That aside, fundamentally those weapons come in play against whom ? Obviously not most of nato Europe Whom are ideological allies or dependents. can’t be against Russian or China because they have nuclear weapons or even North Korea, India Pakistan. So that leaves South America and the Middle East parts of asia. I guess (and it’s off the top of my head) the value of achieving conventional military supremacy maybe an over kill (no pun) against moderate military powers and not so advantageous against nuclear powers. But at the end I’m not a renowned military strategist, i just observe that German and japan’s influence on the world stage is not backed by a massive conventional military supremacy

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#157

Post by jp555 »

zipwitch wrote: post #89
noch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] military supremacy and having the best weapons in the world is a huge part of why the dollar is THE global currency. However, in "How the United States Could Lose a Great-Power War" (RAND, 2019)[0], we read: > [...] For now, U.S. forces appear poorly postured to meet these challenges. That's because both Russia and China have developed formidable networks of missiles, radars, electronic warfare systems, and t…

This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…

If America goes home China's rise is quickly OVER, without anyone providing global trade security on the open oceans. This would drive unrest internally, and over the last 1500 years when China's central control has been threatened, they have turned inward and become shut ins.

The Belt and Road is partially an attempt to deal with the risk of the US pulling out of providing global security, but they need a LOT more time, and somewhat ironically because of COVID-19 they may have run out. While the US is spending trillions to move away from global trade very very quickly.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#158

Post by zaphirplane »

stormdennis wrote: post #115
SEJeff wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As we used to say when I was in Iraq (with the US Army), "Don't mess with America, or we'll bring freedom to you too!" Look how well it worked out in Libya, Iran, Iraq, etc.

I think it was the British and the French who brought freedom to Libya. Foreign intervention seems to nearly always make things worse. Just the other day there was an appalling attack on a maternity hospital in Afghanistan. People are saying that the West needs to do something...

The amount of deaths and horror that freedom has brought to Libya is soul crushing. I would wager that a good percentage of Libyans would Trade that freedom for the dictatorship with all that it entails, obviously not those that suffered injustice of a dictatorship but the majority ... work home life ...

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#159

Post by pjc50 »

AlanSE wrote: post #85
_8j50 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enlighten a simpleton here please, why do "we" need to leave the planet. I am far from a space nerd but I do know that neither mars or any solar object other than other is known to contain climate that is better or would even come close to earth's climate even with no polar ice caps and extreme global warming. Wouldn't it be cheaper (more humane as well) to "colonize" earth? For the next 100 years,even with full on w…

Your ideas for the Earth would play out in a catastrophic manner in practice. Every bit of it requires violation of a basic economic principle - we build out based on the lowest marginal cost. Before we go to the Rockies, we will saturate more fertile and coastal areas. Easier to use what nature provides than to supply those things artificially. Humans will eventually switch over to artificial options, but only after…

> lowest marginal cost

> moon

The energy economics alone doesn't work out. We might be able to make a robot economy in space, but we can't have a significant human economy in space.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#160

Post by buckminstrix »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #154
buckminstrix wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the money is going to the secret space program. And one of the duties of the regular public military and security industry is to be a front.

Wouldn't that be nice. Like in StarGate SG-1, where a lot of things in the military budget fronted for the US pax-americaning our galactic neighbourhood and bringing useful tech back. Alas, I worry that the secret space program is merely the rare not-totally-worthless exception to the overall rule.

I don't understand, what do you mean by overall rule, and what is the exception?
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