A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

ck2 wrote: post #4

Can we swap the US Military and NASA budgets for just one year please? Just one year It would be AMAZING Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly

Can we really accelerate any probe to faster than 1% c? Or 2% c?

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#6

Post by r2_pilot » Fri, Jun 26, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

avmich wrote: post #5

ck2 wrote: post #4

Can we swap the US Military and NASA budgets for just one year please? Just one year It would be AMAZING Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly

Can we really accelerate any probe to faster than 1% c? Or 2% c?

Yes, with lasers or nuclear energy

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#7

Post by patagurbon » Fri, Jun 26, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

avmich wrote: post #5

ck2 wrote: post #4

Can we swap the US Military and NASA budgets for just one year please? Just one year It would be AMAZING Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly

Can we really accelerate any probe to faster than 1% c? Or 2% c?

We have the physics but not the engineering. See the Breakthrough Starshot project for instance

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#8

Post by cg5280 » Fri, Jun 26, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #4

Can we swap the US Military and NASA budgets for just one year please? Just one year It would be AMAZING Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly

In 2024, the average American spent about $17,000 on taxes. Nearly $4000 of that went to the DoD, about $3500 went to interest on federal debt.

I think it’s fun to think about it in this way. I personally spend hundreds of dollars a month on war.

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#9

Post by germinalphrase » Fri, Jun 26, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

cg5280 wrote: post #8

ck2 wrote: post #4

Can we swap the US Military and NASA budgets for just one year please? Just one year It would be AMAZING Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly

In 2024, the average American spent about $17,000 on taxes. Nearly $4000 of that went to the DoD, about $3500 went to interest on federal debt. I think it’s fun to think about it in this way. I personally spend hundreds of dollars a month on war.

You have a source to share for that framing of the tax spend?

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#10

Post by WarmWash » Fri, Jun 26, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #4

Can we swap the US Military and NASA budgets for just one year please? Just one year It would be AMAZING Or even what we fund Israel's 2/3 of all their weapons are bought by US We'd have 10% speed of light probes going outside of solar system already Well at least Nancy Grace Roman L2 Telescope is launching, hope it goes perfectly

The military budget is a jobs program that also keeps a (near bare minimum) level of industrial capacity afloat.

Its why no politician left or right is really interested in cutting it. If you browse open contracts, you'll see they that they overwhelmingly buy rather banal things and spend comparatively little on the "killing people" parts.