As Thomas James notes, Bruce Gagnon is off his meds (again? still?).
When the space craft arrives near the moon it will fire a missile, at twice the speed of a bullet, from the spacecraft into the moon’s surface. NASA maintains that the “test” will displace several miles of lunar material in order to find out if water is present on the moon’s surface.
Funny, I didn’t know that lunar material came by the mile.
NASA has publicly maintained in recent years that all of their space missions are now “dual use” – meaning that each mission they launch is both civilian and military at the same time. Thus one must consider that this LCROSS moon bombing mission is likely testing the capability of Pentagon technologies to launch missiles from space that could hit targets on Earth.
NASA has never “maintained” such a thing, either publicly or privately. I’m not aware of any, let alone every, mission that is “both civilian and military at the same time.” It would be amusing to see Mr. Gagnon attempt to come up with a citable source for this psychotropic fantasy. And of course, even if the premise weren’t nonsense, the conclusion doesn’t follow from it. It is no technological challenge to hit targets on earth from space — this is exactly what ballistic missiles have been designed to do for half a century or so. Only someone fundamentally ignorant about history, technology and physics (and probably deranged as well) would delude himself that the Pentagon would need to test such technology on a body with no atmosphere.
Hate to break it to you, Bruce, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
But I will admit, I do expect the president to apologize to the moon for this aggressive act.
Mr. Simberg,
I am not a PC enforcer. Far from it. On the other hand, I do believe in some basics of polite society. Realizing, as I do, that this website is yours to do as you see fit, it would seem nevertheless to me that we have a problem in basic humanity here. To be a curmudgeon is one thing. To be a complete three-letter word (starts with “a”, ends with “s”) is another.
If Mr. Gagnon actually has a problem of the mind, then a simple–and silent–“there but for the grace of God go I” would probably be more appropriate than your repeated putdowns (“off meds”, “deranged”, “psychotropic fantasy”, etc.)–for none of us can guarantee what afflictions of the body may or may not one day assault us. The good health of today is often the frail slender reed of tomorrow, and who gets to live 80 years in vitality and who gets snipped off earlier is often not based upon merit, but the capriciousness of life. I would suggest that if Mr. Gagnon has any “issues”, that you let it go with a little more charity.
If, on the other hand, he himself is merely an idiot and his positions are truly idiotic, then their own idiocy should be able to be attacked on their own without schoolyard insults. For said insults, they coarsen the environment, and make you look like a jerk. And they often accomplish little–the already converted agree, the neutral become appalled, the opposed outraged and even more firm in their defiance.
And there is this danger for the Republic–in the last month the number of attacks on a person’s sanity and mental state has become a common thread and an all-too-easy attack mode from the left–General Jones, Gerald Walpin, and Sarah Palin. We should not become Russia, discrediting opponents via accusations of mental imbalance. Let us leave that to the leftists. Accusations of basic stupidity and sheer imbecility should be more than sufficient, and so please, in the name of common humanity, lay off poor Mr. Gagnon’s mental state, and lay on to his actual words and ideas.
Having said that, what is your opinion of VASIMR? And how is the Mach 2 profile to orbit (if memory serves) coming along? I do enjoy your work, and enjoy it better when the hint of the curmudgeon, like a fine wine, is an aftertaste and not the main course.
And another thing — you misspelled “the Moon.”
Stop being mean to moonbats!
Or is that “Moonbats”?
Having said that, what is your opinion of VASIMR?
It looks like a very interesting propulsion technology, and I hope it succeeds.
And how is the Mach 2 profile to orbit (if memory serves) coming along?
I’m sorry, but I have no idea to what you’re referring.
Oh–the Mach 2 thing–last year you had a bleg about aerodynamic heating and structural strengths, or something along those lines. If memory serves, you were talking around Mach 2 speeds, so I assumed a constant Mach 2 profile through the atmosphere until the vehicle ran out of energy. I’m aware that orbital speeds are Mach 25+, so I took that to possibly mean then launching something from the carrier vehicle (ala RASCAL, et al) once at altitude after climbing up to extreme heights at “slow” speed (ala SpaceShip 1).
It’s not that important, pay it no mind, though it did sound interesting at the time.
Oh, that.
It had nothing whatsoever to do with space. It was a cruising supersonic aircraft question.
Dude, are we nuking the Moon? Because that could almost make up for the whole ruinous debt & taxation thing.
Our Liberal Fascist overlord is declaring “War on the Moon” to mobilize and transform society into a fine marxist machine. In keeping with this new policy direction, the moon will now be demonized. Young people and politicians will be encouraged to howl at the moon in rage against the moon’s capitalist domination of the sky.
About time. That damn moon has been doing it’s own thing, affecting the Earth environment without any impact study and when was the last time it paid any taxes??? Ok, so we can’t get any sales or income tax out of it, but look at all that real estate. Someone needs to get it appraised so we can start to balance the federal budget.
We should be able to charge penalties as well. We just need to track down all those title holders from the seventies… just look for signs of pet rocks and chia pets and they shouldn’t be too hard to find.
The information that I have from the LCROSS PI is that the crater formed by LCROSS is estimated to be 12.5 meters in diameter. In the last 40 years it is estimated that several hundred craters of this size or larger have been formed.
I think that the idiot is talking about is the height of the plume. He might want to look up at the sky and think about the nuke equivalent of copernicus.
Oops
Sorry, that number for the crater is around 20 meters.
One other data point is that the Apollo SIV-B impact crater was ~40 meters in diameter.
Rand,
This is mild, there are even worst kooks out there. This guy thinks it will start a war with the peaceful aliens living on the Moon!
http://www.examiner.com/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m6d19-NASA-moon-bombing-violates-space-law–may-cause-conflict-with-lunar-extraterrestrial-civilizations
Alfred Lambremont Webre
NASA moon bombing violates space law & may cause conflict with lunar ET/UFO civilizations
June 19, 4:14 PM
[[[If the true intent of the LCROSS mission moon bombing is a hostile act by NASA against known extraterrestrial civilizations and settlements on the moon, then NASA and by extension the U.S. government are guilty of aggressive war which is the most serious of war crimes under the U.N. Charter and the Geneva Conventions, to which the U.S. is subject.]]]
and
[[[The U.S. has not attempted any public, peaceful diplomacy with the civilizations on the moon. In fact, the U.S. has imposed an embargo on public knowledge that settlements and an extraterrestrial presence exist on the moon.
What is touted as a scientific experiment – the bombing of the moon – may in reality be an attempt to impose de facto U.S. sovereignty on the moon. ]]]
Yes, the lunatic fringe in on the loose 🙂