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Round Up: Presidential Candidates Talk Space
By Bart Leahy
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 31 December 2007
12:50 pm ET
Space exploration has become a topic of interest in U.S. presidential debates for the first time in over 40 years. Seventeen individuals are running for president in the two major parties' primaries. Several of them have expressed opinions about space; but most, to our knowledge, have not spoken directly about space, or addressed it at all. Below are statements from the candidates and/or their campaigns.
Democratic Party
Joe Biden
"The revolution in transportation will also affect foreign policy in the years to come. I don't mean commercial space travel or the supersonic transport. There are limits to how fast or far we need to travel, especially when teleconferencing lets us be 'face to face' without being 'in person.'"
Source: JoeBiden.com "Non-Proliferation and U.S. Diplomacy in a High-Tech World"
"The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman warned on Sunday against fostering an arms race in space after China was reported to have conducted an anti-satellite weapons test...
"'I don't think we should be overly worried about this at this point," Biden said. "We have ways to deal with that ability.'...
"'One of the things we have to talk about is whether or not the, sort of, ideological base notion about how we deal with space and weapons in space and the use of weapons from space is something that is a path we should continue to follow,' he said.
"'This is not the direction we want to go, in escalating competition in space. And we should be talking about it,' Biden said."
Source: Washington Post, "Sen. Biden Warns Against Space Arms Race"
Campaign contact information:
info@JoeBiden.com
Biden for President, Inc.
P.O. Box 438
Wilmington, DE 19899
(302) 574-2008
Hillary Clinton
"Hillary will enhance American leadership in space, including:
Pursuing an ambitious 21st century Space Exploration Program, by implementing a balanced strategy of robust human spaceflight, expanded robotic spaceflight, and enhanced space science activities.
Developing a comprehensive space-based Earth Sciences agenda, including full funding for NASA's Earth Sciences program and a space-based Climate Change Initiative that will help us secure the scientific knowledge we need to combat global warming.
Promoting American leadership in aeronautics by reversing funding cuts to NASA's and FAA's aeronautics R&D budget."
Source: HillaryClinton.com
"As a Chinese spacecraft is ready to head to the moon, the leading U.S. democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), is calling for an increase in overall U.S. robotic exploration, but not necessarily manned exploration of the moon.
"If elected, Sen. Clinton also promises:
Development of increased robotic exploration missions.
Development of "a comprehensive space-based Earth sciences agenda, including full funding for NASA's Earth sciences program and a space-based Climate Change Initiative that will help us secure the scientific knowledge we need to combat global warming.'
Reversal of Bush administration "funding cuts to NASA's and FAA's aeronautics R&D budget."
Source: Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, October 29, 2007
Campaign contact information:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/
Chris Dodd
"Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman announced today that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will provide funds to Connecticut small businesses for research and development purposes. The technology projects were chosen based on innovation and scientific merit.
"'From biotechnology to space exploration to energy innovation, Connecticut businesses continue to develop breakthroughs in science and technology,' said Dodd. 'Our small businesses are an important driving force of these industries, and the partnership between NASA and these companies will secure Connecticut's reputation as a renowned leader in these fields.'"
Source: "Dodd, Lieberman Announce Grants to Help Small Business Research and Tech Projects"
Campaign contact information:
PO Box 51882
Washington, DC 20091
Phone (DC): (202) 737-DODD (3633)
Phone (CT): (860) 244-2008
http://chrisdodd.com/contact
John Edwards
"Former senator John Edwards (N.C.), who is vying with Clinton and Obama for the Democratic nomination, said in a statement: 'We need a balanced space and aeronautics program. We need to support solar system exploration as an important goal for our human and robotic programs, but only as one goal among several.'"
Source: Washington Post, "Clinton Favors Future Human Spaceflight"
"If elected President, how would you balance the scientific research at NASA with the manned spaceflight program which, arguably, has dubious scientific value?"
"I am a strong supporter of our space program. It reflects the best of the American spirit of optimism, discovery and progress. We need a balanced space and aeronautics program. We need to support solar system exploration as an important goal for our human and robotic programs, but only as one goal among several. And we need to invite other countries to share in a meaningful way in both the adventure and the cost of space exploration."
Source: "Exclusive: Interview with Senator John Edwards on Science-Related Topics"
Campaign contact information:
410 Market Street
Suite 400
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Phone: (919) 636-3131
Fax: (919) 967-3644
http://johnedwards.com/about/contact/form/
Mike Gravel
[No statements about space by Mr. Gravel could be found].
Campaign contact information:
P.O. Box 948
Arlington, VA 22216-0948
703-652-4698
http://www.gravel2008.us/contact
Dennis Kucinich
"When I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States. And he excited America with a vision of an America that could be. He urged every American to get an education in the sciences in particular so that we could participate in this collaborate effort of reaching for the stars.
"We recognize that our journey is more homebound today, more Earthbound. And so, as president of the United States, I would use the intellectual and scientific abilities that exist in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to move America towards a green economy.
"There's tremendous amounts of research being done at NASA right now, particularly in the area of carbonless burns, carbonless combustion. And it's amazing what is possible today in America. When you think about NASA being dedicated to creating green technologies, where we can call forth a world that we barely understand exists, but knowing the inventive genius that characterizes America throughout our history, we can move towards sustainability using the inventive genius of NASA, where they can create these products in the alpha stage and even license them in the beta stage to help prime the pump of our economy and move quickly, create millions of new jobs."
Source: Newsmaker Transcripts
"Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) called the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 a huge success for NASA Glenn and a big victory for the Ohio delegation.
"'This is a huge success for NASA Glenn and the Cleveland-area, and a big victory for the Ohio Congressional delegation,' stated Kucinich. 'NASA Glenn is a premier research facility. Thanks to our efforts, this bill helps ensure that Glenn will remain an important part of NASA's long-term plans. This is great news for NASA Glenn and our whole community.'"
Source: "Kucinich Hails NASA Authorization Bill as 'Huge Success' for NASA-Glenn and Cleveland Area"
Campaign contact information:
11808 Lorain Ave
Cleveland, OH 44111
info@kucinich.us
Barack Obama
"Barack Obama's early education and K-12 plan package costs about $18 billion per year. He will maintain fiscal responsibility and prevent any increase in the deficit by offsetting cuts and revenue sources in other parts of the government. The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years"
Source: BarackObama.com
Campaign contact information:
Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact
Bill Richardson
"Richardson has compiled a list of more than a dozen specific programs that can be cut, reduced, or delayed...
$8 billion from scaling back the failing National Missile Defense program.
$3 billion from eliminating the Pentagon's secret 'Space-Based Offensive Weapons' that both are redundant in terms of military capacity and will serve to cause a new arms race in space."
Source: Richardson for President, "Richardson Outlines Plan to Modernize Military"
Campaign contact information:
http://action.richardsonforpresident.com/page/s/contact
Republican Party
Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani said the United States should prioritize energy independence much like it did the space race, when Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson fired up the gears of industry and imagination after the Soviet Union beat the U.S. into space.
The result was a bipartisan thrust to the moon that transcended several presidencies and spawned a generation of national pride and scientific spin-offs.
"Politics aside and national interests first. Not only did it help us ultimately win the Cold War, it helped us in countless other ways, in scientific development and products," Giuliani said.
"We can do the same thing with energy independence. But we've got to have a president who knows how to get things done."
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (via Space Politics.com), "Giuliani Wants to 'Aggressively Pursue Space Exploration'"
Campaign contact information:
Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee, Inc.
295 Greenwich St, #371
New York, NY 10007 212-835-9449
webteam@joinrudy2008.com
Mike Huckabee
In response to the following question: "Is there a candidate amongst you willing to take a pledge on behalf of the Mars Society of sending an American to the surface of Mars by 2020? If not, what is your vision for human space exploration?"
"Whether we ought to go to Mars is not a decision that I would want to make, but I would certainly want to make sure that we expand the space program, because every one of us who are sitting here tonight have our lives dramatically improved because there was a space program — whether it's these screens that we see or the incredible electronics that we use, including the GPS systems that got many of you to this arena tonight.
"Some of you were late because you didn't have one, by the way. Or whether it's the medical technologies that saved many of our lives or the lives or our families, it's the direct result of the space program, and we need to put more money into science and technology and exploration.
"Now, whether we need to send somebody to Mars, I don't know. But I'll tell you what: If we do, I've got a few suggestions, and maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars."
Source: Republican Presidential Debate, November 28, 2007
Campaign contact information:
Huckabee for President, Inc.
P.O. Box 2008
Little Rock, Arkansas 72203
501-324-2008
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home
Duncan Hunter
"'China's successful engagement of a satellite orbiting in space marks the commencement of a new era of military competition,' said Congressman Hunter. 'American military forces are dependent on information gathered from U.S. space assets and the capability to engage these resources represents a significant threat to our nation's military power.
"'China's actions and continued efforts to advance its technological capabilities require that all Department of Defense programs intended to preserve America's space assets be reviewed for adequacy. Further, new programs to strengthen the protection, redundancy and reconstitution of U.S. space assets must be made essential. It is critical that we take these steps now to ensure our forces cannot be targeted through an adversarial space strike.'"
"Congressmen Hunter and Everett sent a letter to President Bush advising that a review of space programs within the Defense Department be initiated. Text of the letter follows:
"Dear President Bush,
"China's recent test of an anti-satellite missile, destroying a satellite in low earth orbit, marks the commencement of a new era of military competition in space. The dependency of American warfighting capability, and the economy, on space assets compels our nation to take the necessary steps to ensure our forces cannot be targeted through an adversarial space strike.
"Space capabilities are integral to the daily execution of virtually every military campaign, operation, and exercise involving U.S. forces today. Therefore, a review of Department of Defense programs intended to preserve American space assets is warranted. Further, new programs which provide protection, redundancy, and reconstitution of space assets should be essential.
"Mr. President, it is important that substantial efforts are made now to avoid technological surprise. I look forward to working with you to strengthen our capabilities to protect America's space assets."
Source: House.Gov "Hunter: New Era of Military Competition Commences"
Campaign contact information:
Hunter For President, Inc.
9340 Fuerte Drive
Suite 302
La Mesa, CA 91941
(619)463-3896
http://www.gohunter08.com/inner.asp?z=3
Alan Keyes
"Q: Should taxpayers continue to fund NASA, or should it move to the private sector?"
"A: They should continue to fund these programs. When we opened up our frontiers, the Lewis & Clark Expedition and so forth, those were not privately funded matters. Our Founders considered exploring this great continent to be one of the important functions of government. And we should as a community sustain our commitment to develop the great frontier [of space] for the sake of humanity, not just for our own sake."
"Space exploration has a spiritual component which we may be losing sight of. As a people we need continually to have before us the truth that our potential is best realized when we are challenging ourselves to reach for those things that transcend our everyday needs and desires and passions and commit us to the kind of endeavors that have importance not only for us, but for future generations. I think space exploration is one of those and I would support it strongly."
Source: Republican Debate at Dartmouth College Oct 29, 1999
"Keyes supports the following spending levels: ...
Slightly Increase Funding
NASA
Scientific research"
Source: OntheIssues.Org
Campaign contact information:
Alan Keyes for President
P.O. Box 50597
Provo, UT 84605-0597
Phone: 800-727-6142
Fax: 801-691-0536
contact@alankeyes.com
John McCain
"When asked about their candidates' positions on the moon-Mars project, a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) did not respond."
Source: Washington Post, "Clinton Favors Future Human Spaceflight"
Campaign contact information:
John McCain 2008
P.O. Box 16118
Arlington, VA 22215
(703) 418-2008
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/
Ron Paul
"Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate and commend the designers, builders, sponsors, and pilot of SpaceShipOne on the occasion of its successful flight out of earth's atmosphere on June 21, 2004. What is most remarkable about SpaceShipOne, of course, is that it is the first privately-financed and privately built vehicle to leave the Earth's atmosphere...
"Their success should also be read as a cautionary tale for all of us in government. If only the United States had a taxation policy that limited government and thereby freed up more private capital, there is no telling how many more like Burt Rutan, Paul Allen, and Michael Melvill would be able to do great things to the benefit all of mankind. This not just in space exploration, but in medical research, alternative energy research, and any number of the problems that continue to perplex mankind. Private enterprise depends on results and success and therefore private capital is always targeted much more wisely than is monies confiscated by governments."
Source: Ron Paul Before the House of Representatives, June 25, 2004, "Praising Space Exploration"
"Ron Paul consistently opposes taxpayer funding for NASA"
Source: The Hill, "Ron Paul: Trouble Back Home"
Campaign contact information:
3461 Washington Blvd., Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22201
703-248-9115
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/contact/
Mitt Romney
"Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's campaign responded by providing an article from the Florida Today newspaper that said: 'During the first campaign visit to the Space Coast by a 2008 presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney said he supports Bush's vision for space exploration and has no reason yet to propose a new direction.'"
Source: Washington Post, "Clinton Favors Future Human Spaceflight"
Campaign contact information:
Romney for President, Inc.
P.O. Box 55239
Boston, MA 02205-5239
(857) 288-6400
http://www.mittromney.com/ContactUs
Tom Tancredo
In response to the same question answered by Mike Huckabee:
"The question is a serious one and it deserves a serious answer, and that is this: Look, we've been -- how many times up here, how many questions have dealt with the issue of deficit spending, the debt out of control? And yet, we have somebody saying, 'But would you spend more money on going to Mars?'
"And the suggestion that we need to spend more money on space exploration. This is it, folks. That's why we have such incredible problems with our debt, because everybody's trying to be everything to all people.
"We can't afford some things, and by the way, going to Mars is one of them."
Campaign contact information:
501 Church Street
Suite 212
Vienna, VA 22180
(703) 255-9898
http://teamtancredo.org/activist_headquarters/
Fred Thompson
"Complete the modernization of the U.S. Air Force to ensure continued tactical air dominance over all potential adversaries and the ability to project power globally.
Ensure tactical and strategic air/space superiority over every battlefield and the U.S. ...
Develop robust Missile Defenses to protect the homeland, deployed forces, and allies against ballistic missiles of all ranges in all phases of flight.
Field a layered, multi-tiered missile defense architecture that includes land-, sea-, and space-based components.
Support the development and testing of advanced missile defense technologies to address the complexity of foreign ballistic missile inventories.
Promote international collaboration in all missile defense efforts, to include cooperation in joint development and production with friends and allies."
Source: Fred08 "Revitalizing America's Armed Forces"
"We were able to get those things done. I also took a leadership role in the passage of the homeland security bill, and blocked export control legislation that would have allowed the sale of our sensitive technology to unreliable countries."
Source: Candidacy announcement speech Sep 6, 2007
Campaign contact information:
Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc.
P.O. Box 128349
Nashville, TN 37212-8349
http://www.fred08.com/Contact/Contact.aspx
Bart Leahy is a technical writer living in Alabama.
Virgin Galactic's new Spaceship 2 interior. Wow! Test flights begin next year, and passenger flights soon after that.
Mars Observer, after travelling for 20 months across the martian surface, gets to its destination - "the Victoria Crater".
Although the original article appears on Space.com I think it's too important not to re-post in its entirety.
~~~
Thirty years ago, Princeton Professor Gerard K. O'Neill published his scenario for space settlement.
"Is the surface of a planet the best place for an expanding technological civilization?" O’Neill’s question to his advanced physics students inspired a young generation of thinkers to examine the possibilities of space migration. In the middle 1970s, the accomplishments of Apollo were fresh in our minds and the next steps forward seemed only paused but not yet abandoned. We still dared to have great dreams, and great choices seemed to be opening up.
The results of Dr. O’Neill’s initial classroom think tank were described in his Physics Today article in 1975. His 1976 book The High Frontier explored the subject in more detail. As others became enthusiastic about the idea, many articles appeared in magazines and newspapers around the world.
O'Neill never wanted the space settlement movement to be a one-man show, and he was happy to see a proliferation of books expanding on the idea. Stuart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame published a book called Space Colonies, a thought-provoking anthology with ranges of opinion impossible to find in government and academic writings. (A lightly censored version is archived at NASA’s Space Settlement pages.)
In the mid-1970s I had occasion to ask one of the contributors, Paul Ehrlich, his opinion of the space colony idea. He laughingly dismissed it, saying, “Maybe the Army Corps of Engineers will build it." His skepticism was based on some of the early rhetoric that population problems could be addressed by space migration, an idea he rightfully dismissed on mathematical grounds alone. A few years later he published (with Anne Ehrlich) Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment. One chapter contained a discussion that showed a good deal of further thought about space colonies, especially the problem of creating stable ecosystems from scratch, even in such large volumes as O’Neillian habitats.
This remains a major challenge, and requires a body of knowledge we have scarcely begun to gather. Just as the Human Genome Project is mapping out the intricate details of our genetic code, there will need to be the equivalent of a Gaia Genome Project to take inventory of the varied ecosystems across Earth, mapping out the interaction between the environment and its inhabitants. It may be that certain soil bacteria, insects, and plants are critically important in as yet unknown ways. When these subtle complexities are better understood, we can more intelligently design and build closed-cycle ecosystems in space.
Unfortunately, human expansion on Earth is in the act of displacing and erasing more and more pieces of the ecosystem. Those who would compile such a massive study of the Gaia system may soon be in the position of trying to copy the pages of a document that is burning and falling apart before their eyes.
Time is of the essence in deciding if there will ever be a space settlement effort, on this and other critical fronts.
As the initial tide of space colony interest waned in the late 1970s, there was less talk of visionary ideas and more about economic justifications. The main industry was seen as mass-production of solar power satellites, collecting energy in space and beaming it down to antenna farms for use on Earth. When the second round of 1970s oil shortages hit at the end of the decade, the idea looked even more attractive. But this was in the day when oil was rising from $15 a barrel to $37 by 1980. By 1986, oil was down to $15 again, and the sense of urgency faded. Today, with oil running over $50 a barrel and the supply a constant source of uncertainty, such a novel energy source could begin to look more inviting again.
Visions of space colonies and space power industries faded in the glare of some harsh realities: the Shuttle not living up to its selling points, the space station’s protracted birth agonies, and the dwindling prospects for going beyond Earth orbit.
If the ideas for space settlement have engineering validity, they deserve to be kept ready so they can be considered as an option when the times become right. The English Channel Tunnel was an idea gathering dust on shelves since the days of Napoleon, long predicted never to happen, but suddenly the work was done and now the tunnel is taken for granted, as if it always existed.
It’s time for a new generation to be made aware of the possibilities of space settlement. One motivation that may be compelling—more than the Earth-saving energy production scenario, worthy as that is and even more than the thrill of just going out there—is the idea of living in a small but independent world of one’s own choosing.
There are now practically no new nations created on Earth without episodes of bloodshed. Short of revolution and war, there are few options available for those who dream about establishing a new society somewhere, as various ideological and religious groups have historically done. But even today, there are many people who would welcome the chance to settle a new frontier, where new ways of life could be tried. If enough people believed there was an opportunity to leave whatever they didn’t like about society behind and start over with a new nation aligned to their shared passions, I believe that could stir the pioneer spirit that still slumbers in many.
Space settlement may really get started if the idea finds appeal in influential circles, especially among world leaders. Several Great Themes have successfully circulated among leaders of the industrial societies, such as the need to avoid nuclear war, the importance of economic ties, and the need to make and honor international agreements. A Great Theme of establishing a permanent human presence in space—as a way to develop new energy sources to maintain high standards of living for the growing population of Earth, and as a way to back up Earth’s living populations and preserve our collected knowledge, and to create new living spaces for those wanting new ways of life—would provide a guiding principle for vital policy decisions.
During the Kennedy era, when Project Apollo was presented, many influential people recalled the Colliers symposium articles and the Disney space television special. The idea was already real to them, so they instinctively knew it could be done. It was just a matter of priorities.
Having a technological civilization that’s able to afford nice things like space travel depends on the infrastructure not being destroyed by wars or natural disaster. The ability to “back up” our selves and our gathered knowledge may not always be possible as it is today.
As long as we live in a world where limited resources must be allocated among a growing population, we are ultimately doomed. All our efforts to increase food production and extend individual longevity will end up trading a sooner catastrophe for a later one of greater scope. So far, we are succeeding in a kind of pyramid scheme with Earth’s resources, but in time the pressure of human numbers will strain and drain them. When resources become scarce and populations dense, individual freedoms are unaffordable luxuries.
If civilization is to be allowed to spread beyond Earth, it must take place before the world's resources are forcibly redistributed or squandered and disrupted by major wars. In recent history, we have seen we have seen our ability to reach the Moon thrown away to pay for a massive military effort that only managed to delay the communist takeover of South Vietnam by 10 years.
We have lost precious decades of establishing a beachhead in space due to wavering priorities and economic downturns. We cannot assume conditions will always be as right as they are now for such bold ventures as space travel. Instabilities tug at the house of cards that we call civilization. We still have time to accomplish the miracles we know are possible to achieve, but we need to begin the work while we can still afford to do it.
Don Davis (donaldedavis.com) is the artist most responsible for making space colonies look like a good place to live. He won an Emmy for his work on Carl Sagan's TV series Cosmos. Today he is the leading astronomical artist for full-dome theater shows in planetariums worldwide.
I've been observing the optimism and "pronoia" espoused by upwinger and Chris in their posts, and the angst espoused by Ralph Metzner in his article, and in their own unique ways, by Paul and eventhorizon. I'd like to offer a perspective on how we can reconcile these divergent perspectives into a single worldview, and how we can "take charge of the situation" and proactively instigate the future of joy, ecstacy, freedom, and abundance that God has prearranged (but not preordained) via universal intelligence. I've been researching a "hyper-holism" that reconciles epistemological and ontological opposites — so that we can: a) see the world's political situation in its true context, and b) effectively reconcile religious and political opposites. What follows is the preface for a large paper/thesis that I am working on. Following the preface is a description of a special twenty-one page .pdf file that I have prepared, and a link to it. It is meant to offer a message of hope that is unbridled, yet grounded in the deepest Truth of our Reality. I can not think of a better forum in which to release this material, and hope you will find it to be both interesting and useful.
------------------------------ Beginning of Preface ------------------------------
Collective Empowerment and Entheogenic Freedom
This work is based on ten years of research at the point where science and the world's many religions come together without compromise. This research reveals a symmetry in the structure of human belief, as per the four cardinal paradigms of culture depicted below. As such, this paper draws insight with equal ease from: a) hard rational logic, b) the inspired appreciation of scripture, c) awakened subjectivity, and d) heartfelt ecological sensibility. This research also shows that the goals of collective empowerment and entheogenic freedom are closely related to each other, and to the securing of a unique destiny that is virtually unknown outside "psychedelic futurism." In particular, it shows why these twin goals can not be easily and fruitfully secured unless the quest to do so is made inseparable from a destiny characterized internally by communal, nanotech ecotopia, and externally, by a system of cosmic life that would eventually compare to this earth, in the same way that a towering oak compares to an acorn. It then maps out the way forward in detail.
Religious Monotheism
|
...Mystical Pantheism --------.....-------- Scientific Materialism
|
Paganism/Environmentalism
This paper cuts through mundane superstition to tackle the subject of time-symmetric causation head-on. The belief that cause always precedes effect is the most deeply ingrained superstition of the human race. Many are aware that time as we know it is an illusion. Few however, are aware that behind this illusion is a meta-reality in which objective forward in time processes, and subjective backward in time processes engage a holographic relationship of infinite depth. The paper introduces the nature of this relationship, and describes the primal challenge therein (and backs itself up with an appendix detailing the 12+ logical/philosophical arguments and 40+ pieces of empirical/observational evidence that overwhelmingly confirm the reality of time-symmetric causation). In this regard, it: a) presents the living destiny that has been prearranged, but not preordained, by the gestalt quantum-computational intelligence of Reality, i.e. God, and b) shows how the interaction of the real-numbered physical realm and the complex-numbered imaginal realm is rapidly bringing civilization toward an Eschaton characterized by a stark bifurcation of destiny.
This paper's goal is to give an overview of how we can help guide civilization through the lethal economic crisis that it will face circa 2010-2014 — while at the same time, securing freedom for entheogens in the context of specific group energy rituals. It is meant to offer a solid foundation for the challenge at hand. I hope it will be the starting-point for the wide-ranging discussions that will need to occur in these areas.
-------------------------------- End of Preface --------------------------------
Because this proposal touches on so many different aspects of culture, I have assembled bits and pieces of my work into the special twenty-one page file mentioned above. This file is designed to acquaint "psychedelic futurists" with the scope of my analysis, and the course of action that I am proposing. Because the new hyper-holism is so radical in its breadth, and the journey through and beyond the Eschaton even more radical, I have interspersed various charts with the text, and put everything in the order that I believe will be the easiest to follow. Included are the following:
1. A two-page chunk that contains the above preface and a high-level conceptual overview.
2. A two-page chunk that details the true role of the Divine Feminine vis a vis the Eschaton.
3. Two one-page charts that describe the four-fold symmetry of human culture in detail.
4. A detailed six-page introduction of how we may understand and navigate the Eschaton.
5. A two-page chart that describes "holographic libertarianism," an innovative political idea.
6. The three-page description of what life might be like in the "Millennium" and beyond.
7. A four-page list of experiments that should powerfully confirm time-symmetric causation.
This is obviously a work in progress, and some things may still be a bit rough (especially the list of experiments). Beyond that, the main six-page introduction contains a lot more information than would normally be there (to momentarily compensate for the unfinished paper per se). Please bear with it, for I feel that this research will prove to be accurate, and that the proposals based on it will ultimately be useful.
This file is intended to take people on a visionary journey. I hope Paul and the other people here experience it that way, and by this means, feel the living energy of an entheogenic future that is forever trying to get our attention. My suggestion would be to print out a copy, fasten your seat belt, and happy journeys!
http://home.earthlink.net/~thomaswinans/CollectiveEmpowerment.pdf
If people are interested in hearing more, I'll be happy to discuss the subject matter here, and/or post links to the various sections of the paper as I complete them. Please give me your feedback.
Sincerely,
Reverend Tom
Wow, we are living in surreal times. Just in the last month we have now seen two quantum leaps in space propulsion. The first was a proposal for a hyperspace ship, and now an inertialess drive. Is this still 2006, or did somehow we jump ahead 50 years? Bizarre and simply amazing.
From Physical Review:
~~~
Felber's antigravity discovery solves the two greatest engineering challenges to space travel near the speed of light: identifying an energy source capable of producing the acceleration; and limiting stresses on humans and equipment during rapid acceleration.
"Dr. Felber's research will revolutionize space flight mechanics by offering an entirely new way to send spacecraft into flight," said Dr. Eric Davis, Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin and STAIF peer reviewer of Felber's work. "His rigorously tested and truly unique thinking has taken us a huge step forward in making near-speed-of-light space travel safe, possible, and much less costly."
The field equation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity has never before been solved to calculate the gravitational field of a mass moving close to the speed of light. Felber's research shows that any mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'antigravity beam' in front of it. The closer a mass gets to the speed of light, the stronger its 'antigravity beam' becomes.
Felber's calculations show how to use the repulsion of a body speeding through space to provide the enormous energy needed to accelerate massive payloads quickly with negligible stress. The new solution of Einstein's field equation shows that the payload would 'fall weightlessly' in an antigravity beam even as it was accelerated close to the speed of light.
Accelerating a 1-ton payload to 90 percent of the speed of light requires an energy of at least 30 billion tons of TNT. In the 'antigravity beam' of a speeding star, a payload would draw its energy from the antigravity force of the much more massive star. In effect, the payload would be hitching a ride on a star.
"Based on this research, I expect a mission to accelerate a massive payload to a 'good fraction of light speed' will be launched before the end of this century," said Dr. Felber. "These antigravity solutions of Einstein's theory can change our view of our ability to travel to the far reaches of our universe."
More immediately, Felber's new solution can be used to test Einstein's theory of gravity at low cost in a storage-ring laboratory facility by detecting antigravity in the unexplored regime of near-speed-of-light velocities.
I wouldn't have taken this seriously, but I read it over at Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends:
According to the Heim quantum theory (HQT) developed in the 1950s, it should be possible to build an 'hyperspace' engine allowing a spacecraft to reach Mars in 3 hours. It would also allow us to travel to stars more that 10 light years away in 80 days by slipping into a different dimension. But is interstellar space travel a dream or a future reality? It all depends if this controversial theory about the fabric of our universe is correct or not. So far, it seems that a majority of physicists thinks that this theory is either incomplete or almost understandable. Nevertheless, some scientists working for the U.S. Department of Energy think that such an 'hyperspace' engine could be tested within five years.An extraordinary "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.
The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.
The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.
The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy -- which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine -- say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.
Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.
However, Prof. Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned that any prototype would be based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics.
"It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited," he said.
"But this thing is not around the corner. We first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion. It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to different solar systems. "If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof. Hauser said.
"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [U.S.] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."
The U.S. authorities' attention was attracted after Prof. Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory."
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company has just announced they will be begin the construction of a $225 million dollar space-port facility in the New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic also revealed that up to 38,000 people from 126 countries have paid a deposit for a seat on one of its manned commercial flights, including a core group of 100 "founders" who have paid the initial $200,000 cost of a flight upfront. Virgin Galactic is planning to begin flights in late 2008 or early 2009.
Hi everyone. Yep, it's been a long time since I wrote anything for Future Hi or anywhere else for that matter. I've been so busy with more practical matters that finding the time to express my thoughts publicly has not been possible.
Indictments and Political Scandal
As you may have heard, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff was indicted on five felony counts. In those moments where I take politics seriously, this could be a big deal and make me happy, but it doesn't. It's quite possible these indictments are only the beginning of seeing this criminal adminstration fall from power as much as it deserves to. Regardless of the probability of that, it all doesn't matter. The damage has already been done. America's reputation has been shattered, the deficts are soaring, dramatic increases in police state powers have been essentially cemented into law , etc., yada, yada, ad nauseum. Basically, the entire political game is a dead end for you, me and humanity. I can't possibly think how any reform, no matter how sweeping will make much of a difference. Politics is dead, lets move on.
Post-Politics:
If we hope to have a future, we need to start thinking post-politically. Some people, might have a problem with that whole concept. They think that has long as individual interact with each other, there will be politics. This is not true. As Timothy Leary made a strong case for, politics is rooted in power struggles within the contraints of a planetary 2-dimensional surface. Iain Banks makes the most compelling case I've ever read. As long as we remain on a planet, there is limited space in which we can travel. Any direction we decide to go in, we will inevitable end up back where we started. All corners of the globe have in some way been explored, colonized, utilized, cordoned off, walled, fenced, enclosed, patented, owned, copyrighted, raped and plundered. There is no wild and free frontier left, no place left to explore or to escape to. Sure, there are some places more free than others, but the differences are often trivial. For most people on the planet, life is hard, brutish and short. For those of us lucky enough to be in the developed world, the walls are closing in, fast. But,
End of Hierarchies and Traditional Power Structures:
Don't loose hope folks, because things are a accelerat'n! The current system with all its corruption, greed and shear stupidity and incompetence can't last much longer. Not only from an environmental and sustainable point of view, but because there is rapid, but still deep current change underway. It's all around us, and it's happening without anyone noticing much. It's not some big monolithic light from the sky change that we are archetypically expecting, but a much more subtle and profound change happening that we won't notice until its already happened. These changes are all around us. Humanity is waking up. People are becoming more aware, we are taking all of these tools and technologies for granted. The network is growing, and will continue to grow. Meanwhile, what we actually see with our traditional conditioning is more laws, copyrights, restrictions and so on. It's all an illusion folks. They only exist if you believe they exist. Most, if not all of these new laws are almost entirely uneforceable. The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to network intelligence, peer to peer technologies, free internet, sustainable energy systems, etc.
Power of the Network:
Here is an example of some of the stuff that the power of the network is producing by motivated programmers:
Netsukuku the Anarchical Parallel Internet (Internet)
Developed by the Freaknet, Netsukuku is a new p2p routing system, which will be utilised to build a worldwide distributed, anonymous and anarchical network, separated from the Internet, without the support of any servers, ISPs or authority controls. In a p2p network every node acts as a router, therefore in order to solve the problem of computing and storing the routes for 2^128 nodes, Netsukuku makes use of a new meta-algorithm, which exploits the chaos to avoid cpu consumption and fractals to keep the map of the whole net constantly under the size of 2Kb. Netsukuku includes also the Abnormal Netsukuku Domain Name Anarchy, a non hierarchical and decentralised system of hostnames management which replaces the DNS. It runs on GNU/Linux.
On the alternative energy front:
don't even know where to begin. Breakthroughs in this area are happening almost daily. If you've been reading blogs like World Changing, you'll see that there is so much going on with alternative energy now, that it is now impossible to keep up with the overwhelming rapid pace of global conversion to post-peak-oil alternatives.
Canda Proposing 30 GW wind farm in far north
On the space migration front:
Spaceship One and Two, and then Space Ship Three hold so much promise. There are only the beginning, but they are the first genuine steps of humanity getting off of the planet. With the advent of mass produced nanotubes, we could soon see the commercial construction of several space elevators. Space elevators mean price to space in the hundreds of dollars. Hundreds to change your life forever. What does this mean for the space game? It means that almost everyone who wants to go will go. When you have millions, billions of people who can now afford to go to space, there will be the infrastructure to support it. Every enterprising, capitalizing individual or group will make sure of that. Because the profit potential of this will be enormous beyond all comprehension. To give you an idea, imagine what the total World Gross Product is today. It will triple within the first 5 years of a sub-$1000 price to orbit, and after that it will continue to grow at a conservative 20% a year. Imagine the total economy of humanity growing by 20% a year. You are not rich now? You will be, and so will everyone else. Nothing will ever be the same after this.
I can already hear people, saying, "But what about molecular nanotechnology?". Yes! What's amazing about the above figures is all of that is possible without molecular nanotech. It only requires some master of nanomaterial construction. Once nanotech assemblers hit the scence, things will really take off.
On the longevity front:
If you make it the next 20 years, you're going to live damn near forever. So you might as well accept it. :)
So, what's in store in the next 20 years and beyond
Have fun! Now for me, back to the work at hand. :)
Via Futurismic:
It shouldn't be a big surprise to those paying attention to Branson and Co., but SS-3 is planned to be an orbital vehicle if SS-2 is successful.
I can't contain my excitement about this.
Jamais over at our favorite blog World Changing, has this to say:
"Researchers from the University of Texas, Dallas, and Australia's CSIRO have developed a way of making strong, stable and amazingly useful ribbons and sheets made of multiwall carbon nanotubes. Their system pushes the material out at seven meters/minute; a Quicktime video of the process in action is here. If you've been following the development of nanotubes, you know what kind of accomplishment this is. In my view, this is the biggest technology breakthrough of the year, quite possibly of the decade."
The reason I'm so excited is this is exactly the type of breakthrough we need to brings us one step closer to building a Space Elevator. The strength of the material made from this method is still not strong enough, but it was the mass-production part that has always been considered the biggest hurdle.
What a day for space science. The long speculated "Planet X" or 10th planet in the solar system has been discovered. It's at least 50% bigger than Pluto, and located out in the Kuiper Belt. I think as time goes on we will find dozens, perhaps hundreds of pluto-size objects out in the Kuiper Belt. For the future of space migration, the amount of raw materials and water out there is phenomonal. Speaking of water, shown below here is a hi-res photo of a frozen water lake on the surface of Mars. If there was ever any doubt about water on Mars before, there is none now.
www.astrobiology.com/news/viewsr.html
Abstract:
Motivated by recent developments impacting our view of Fermi's paradox (absence of extraterrestrials and their manifestations from our past light cone), we suggest a reassessment of the problem itself, as well as of strategies employed by SETI projects so far. The need for such reevaluation is fueled not only by the failure of searches thus far, but also by great advances recently made in astrophysics, astrobiology, computer science and future studies, which have remained largely ignored in SETI practice. As an example of the new approach, we consider the effects of the observed metallicity and temperature gradients in the Milky Way on the spatial distribution of hypothetical advanced extraterrestrial intelligent communities. While, obviously, properties of such communities and their sociological and technological preferences are entirely unknown, we assume that (1) they operate in agreement with the known laws of physics, and (2) that at some point they typically become motivated by a meta-principle embodying the central role of information-processing; a prototype of the latter is the recently suggested Intelligence Principle of Steven J. Dick. There are specific conclusions of practical interest to be drawn from coupling of these reasonable assumptions with the astrophysical and astrochemical structure of the Galaxy. In particular, we suggest that the outer regions of the Galactic disk are most likely locations for advanced SETI targets, and that intelligent communities will tend to migrate outward through the Galaxy as their capacities of information-processing increase, for both thermodynamical and astrochemical reasons. This can also be regarded as a possible generalization of the Galactic Habitable Zone, concept currently much investigated in astrobiology.
www.astrobiology.com/news/viewsr.html
Way back in 1981, one of sci-fi's greatest visionaries, A.A. Attansio, wrote a breathtaking book called Radix. I was lucky enough to discover it the same year. I took it home and read it from cover to cover without putting it down. I was spellbound by the story, and the extremely imaginative psychophysics of this world. Like Dune, there was a large glossary of far-out terms in the back. Here is just a sampling.
CIRCLE (Center of International Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth, 2009-2113): a self-sufficient scientific community on the southern Peruvian coast (kro), established to find ways to compensate for the massive morphological changes that began as the earth swung into Line; at the time of its causal collapse (2113), CIRCLE was the only technological community of any significance on earth.
Kro: the term designating the people who dominated the earth before the Line exerted its influence; protected by a magnetic field around the earth and a clement sun, they thrived on their self-absorption and paid only cursory attention to the cosmos that surrounded them.
Line: a hypertube; the timelike geodesies which connect the spacefree internal domain of a naked Kerr-singularity (a rotating black hole that is "open" to our universe); CIRCLE mantics first identified the ray of metafrequency energy jetstreaming from the massive black hole at the galactic hub as the Line; earth migrated into the flux of the Line fully in 2113 kro, though the transmuting effects of this atypical energy had been altering the planet for over a century. (See Linergy.)
Mantic: a human brain coupled to an ATP-pump; this mechanical means of extending intelligence was devised and utilized in CIRCLE; because of the mantic insistence on thinking in dialectical schema, they were obviated when the earth entered into the emergent, pluralistic reality of the multiverse.
Multiverse: the subquantal Field; the "internal" structure of the universe outside of time where all possible universes exist; this nth-dimensional domain is a reality at the core of all black holes; in some rotating, assymetrically collapsed black holes, this core is not shielded by an event horizon and "information" from the multi-verse enters the Einstein-space of our universe. (See Line.)
Psiberant: a substance which acts directly on the brain's third ventricle, the pineal gland, and the Fissure of Rolando; it dramatically increases empathic response in the user.
Radix: a mantic term for the root of existence, the void, or, if you prefer, the isostasis in which the infinite-dimensional space of the multiverse is imbedded; within this void, everything exists; the kro called it wu, ain soth, and sunyata.
Timeslip: collected Linergy, redirected to shape new, transient realities.
Tropiform: eo-crafted furniture which conforms to the shape of the user.
The story takes place in a future earth after it becomes transformed from a beam of energy/radiation that washes over the earth from a super-massive black hole in the galaxies core. The effect of this beam utterly transforms human consciousness into an entirely new plane of being. For 1981, this book was way ahead of it's time. You could say this book planted the seeds for my further initiation into the whole 2012 idea. Radix preceded Jose Arguelles book The Mayan Factor, which relied on a similar proposition that on December 21st, 2012 the Mayan Calendar will end, and humanity will enter into the Galactic Community. According to Arguelles this date represents when Earth will leave a denser vibrational energy and enter into a higher one via a beam of energy from a super-massive black hole at the Galaxies core. At this point humanity will become surfers of the Zuvaya - cosmic immortal beings joining the galactic community of light.
At the time scientists said that it was impossible for there to be black holes at the center of the galaxy. Then in the late 1990's they revised this position when indirect observations confirmed that Arguelles was at least right about there being large black holes there.
Now fast forward to a few days ago, and the latest image from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory orbiting the earth reveals that in addition to the very large super-massive spinning black hole, there are another 10,000 black holes and neutron stars at the center of our milky way galaxy. From the article:
In this Chandra image (shown below), four bright, variable X-ray sources were discovered within 3 light years of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). The variability suggests these are X-ray binary systems where a black hole or neutron star is pulling matter from a nearby companion star. Such a high concentration of X-ray binaries in this region is strong circumstantial evidence that a dense swarm of 10,000 or more stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars has formed around Sgr A*.
I find it interesting that three authors, Attanasio, McKenna and Arguelles, independent of each other all come to very similar conclusions about a future transformation of humanity. Even more curious is to find that what were once considered proposterous speculations on their parts regarding the galactic center have now been confirmed by the latest scientific evidence, contrary to expert opinion at the time their books were first published.
Mark Pesce just turned me on to the most amazing piece of software I've come across in years. It's called Starry Night.
It starts out innocent enough. You pick your location on earth, and it places you on the ground looking up towards the night sky as it is at this very moment. And this is where the true magic begins. As you zoom in and out of the sky, you are able to look at thousands of stars and other phenomena.
Within 15 minutes I was able to spot the International Space Station as it is orbiting the earth right now. At the moment of this post (11:42pm) it was coming over the Pacific towards the South American Coast at 18,000 mph. Keep in mind this simulation is in real-time!! Within a few more minutes I found dozens of satellites orbiting the earth. Then as I pointed further outward I was able to zoom in on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, etc. I was able to see Uranus as it would look from earth at this exact moment in time.
All this was occurring from the ground of my hometown. Then I discovered the Spaceship Mode! I flew away from the earth. First I started heading away at a few km/sec and noticed I was getting anywhere very fast. So I sped up to 1000km/sec and I noticed that I was now slowly approaching the moon. I passed around the moon, and noticed that the dark side is fully lit, as it is located between the sun and earth at this moment. I sped up further and flew out towards Jupiter. I was traveling at about 10 times the speed of light, and it still was taking me at least several minutes to get there, so I sped up to about 500 times the speed of light and saw Jupiter and all of its moons approaching rapidly. I slowed down and approached Europa within about 10,000 km. Amazingly all the detail from the Galileo Probe was right there in front of me!
I sped up further, this time heading out into the galaxy at 100,000 times the speed of light, within a minute or so I was passing Sirius, then I turned and headed towards Procyon, then Vega, and then further out still. And then I was hooked! The free version came to an end. But what an amazing ride. To see more I would need to purchase the full version with all the plugins. Luckily I got some money for Christmas so I purchased as my Christmas present.
Now I loaded the program again, and now there were over a hundred thousand stars to view up to 11th magnitude. Better still, I was able to leave the galaxy altogether and venture out into the local cluster. I first visited the Larger Magellenic Cloud, then to Andromeda, and then further still to the Virgo Cluster, where there are hundreds of galaxies. Starry Night uses OpenGL to render all these objects in beautiful 3 dimensions. So here I was flying like in the TV show Cosmos at millions of times the speed of light past galaxies.
StarryNight goes much further still. All of these stars, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters are all identifiable thru the options. As I fly around in my super-fast spaceship I can see all the objects and their names. The most amazing thing about it is all these objects are actually moving, since this is a real-time simulation. At one point I was near Io, and when I sped up the clock by x3000 times I watched as Jupiter and all its moons sped away from me. I could see all the moons rapidly orbiting the planet at high speed, as if I was actually there.
Also included with Starry Night are hundreds of Hubble images to enhance the zoom-in experience.
I cannot recommend this product highly enough!
From Space News:
Anyone who wants to follow in the shoes of Burt Rutan and win the next big space prize will have to build a spacecraft capable of taking a crew of no fewer than five people to an altitude of 400 kilometers and complete two orbits of the Earth at that altitude. Then they have to repeat that accomplishment within 60 days.
While the first flight must demonstrate only the ability to carry five crew members, the winner will have to take at least five people up on the second flight.
And one more thing. They have to do it by Jan. 10, 2010.
The Rules:
1. The spacecraft must reach a minimum altitude of 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles).2. The spacecraft must reach a minimum velocity sufficient to complete two (2) full orbits at altitude before returning to Earth.
3. The spacecraft must carry no less than a crew of five (5) people.
4. The spacecraft must dock or demonstrate its ability to dock with a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitat, and be capable of remaining on station at least six (6) months.
5. The spacecraft must perform two (2) consecutive, safe and successful orbital missions within a period of sixty (60) calendar days, subject to Government regulations;
6. No more than twenty percent (20 percent) of the spacecraft may be composed of expendable hardware;
7. The contestant must be domiciled in the United States of America.
8. The contestant must have its principal place of business in the United States of America.
9. The Competitor must not accept of utilize government development funding related to this contest of any kind, nor shall there be any government ownership of the competitor. Usin government test facilities shall be permitted.
10. The spacecraft must complete its two (2) missions safely and successfully, with all five (5) crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition’s deadline of Jan. 10, 2010.The Rules:
The spacecraft must reach a minimum altitude of 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles);
The spacecraft must reach a minimum velocity sufficient to complete two (2) full orbits at altitude before returning to Earth;
The spacecraft must carry no less than a crew of five (5) people;
The spacecraft must dock or demonstrate its ability to dock with a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitat, and be capable of remaining on station at least six (6) months;
The spacecraft must perform two (2) consecutive, safe and successful orbital missions within a period of sixty (60) calendar days, subject to Government regulations;
No more than twenty percent (20 percent) of the spacecraft may be composed of expendable hardware;The contestant must be domiciled in the United States of America.
The contestant must have its principal place of business in the United States of America.
The Competitor must not accept of utilize government development funding related to this contest of any kind, nor shall there be any government ownership of the competitor. Usin government test facilities shall be permitted.
The spacecraft must complete its two (2) missions safely and successfully, with all five (5) crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition’s deadline of Jan. 10, 2010.
Spaceship One has won the X-Prize of $10 million!
Yea! This is so cool. A huge milestone in space exploration and I think the X-prize victory will be looked back on as one of the top achievments in space exploration, next to the first man in space, and the first man on the moon.
Wow, these last few days have brought us a tremendous amount of hope and a few steps closer to commercial spaceflight for everyone.
This morning, Spaceship One sucessfully went into space again, completing the first half of it's requirement to win the Ansari X-Prize of $10 million.
But it gets better, much, much better!
This Monday, visionary multi-millionari Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records, started the first manned commercial spaceflight company - Virgin Galactic. I've admired Richard for his bravery and vision for a long time, but now I absolutely adore this man. Virgin Galactic has just licensed Spaceship One's technology, and with an initial $60 million investment plans on building at least 4 more spacecraft and beginning commerical space flights for those who can afford it within the next 3 years! Prices will start around $170-200K per person and drop by half over time. They already anticipate taking at least 3000 per year into sub-orbital space by 2007. That's $525 million dollars a year! Not only is this a profitable business plan, but is quite likely to generate serious competition from others wanting to get on the new space tourism business. What does this mean? It means, prices will plummet. Buzz Aldrin predicts sub-orbital flights should fall below $20k within 10 years. This might sound like a lot, but when you think how much people spend on vacations or new SUV's, this is critical price point that it will make many of your wealthier neighbors, maybe even you, astronauts. So how's that equity home loan for $25k looking now?
There are several additional space prizes announced and in the works. From Space.com:
While a team of aerospace engineers takes aim this week on the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition for privately developed suborbital spaceflight, a Nevada millionaire is planning an even loftier contest.
Robert Bigelow, chief of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, is apparently setting higher goals for private spaceflight endeavors with America's Space Prize, a $50 million race to build an orbital vehicle capable of carrying up to seven astronauts to an orbital outpost by the end of the decade, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology.
Bigelow told Aviation Week that not only would America's Space Prize winners secure the $50 million purse, half of which he's putting up himself, but they'd also snag options to service inflatable space habitats under development by Bigelow Aerospace.
Much like the Ansari X Prize, America's Space Prize would require participants to demonstrate a quick turn around in their launch capabilities, Bigelow said.
Inflatable space habitats are definitely one very good way to go, because they are lightweight, strong and flexible. What this means, is that rather than cumbersom little tin cans that the International Space Station has now, we could have very large, roomy, comfortable and affordable space habitats, hotels for all the new people going into space, space colonies, you name it.
And a little further down the road, we have the Space Elevator. There are several companies such as Liftport already planning on building one, and now there are a is a prize for furthering its development called Elevator 2010.
The space elevator is not only utterly revolutionary but is practically within our reach. Once built and operational, the price tag of going all the way into Geosycnhronous orbit will be less than $2000 per person. I wrote an account of just how lucrative and revolutionary the space elevator will be in opening up the space frontier for everyone here.
And all of these developments are happening right now. Despite some much that is going wrong in the world, the space frontier is finally being opened up.
Think about how Virgin Galactic will positively effect the world. Over the next few years, the richest people in the world will be getting a glimpse of the Earth from space. Although they will only be weightless for 5 or 6 minutes 70 miles about the earth, they will see it's curvature and perhaps its fragility. Almost every astronaut having returned to the Earth, had a new found respect for the Earth environment, for world peace, and in some cases a new expanded sense of spiritual awareness. What this means, is that some of the worlds most powerful people in the world will get some of this "space religion" and hopefully make their new found awareness felt in their actions and their policies. Possibly in time to save the human species from extinction. Wow, I'm high as a kite right now on all this great news, and you should be too!
UPDATE:
I just found this New Article on Bigelow Aerospace's Inflatable Habitats. Bigelow plans on launching some of these test habitats next year.
Scaled Composites launched the first private astronaut Mike Melvill into space. I am so excited!
Although it was not as visually spectacular as a Saturn V launch, this milestone cannot be overstated. What makes this event so important is that a bunch of guys in a couple of hangars at a rinky-dink airport in the Mojave desert, with just $20 million in start-up capital launched a man into space. This event is as much a psychological milestone as it is a technological one. It is likely to get more investors looking at the potential of space tourism. Initial costs of using the SpaceshipOne design is likely to be around $100,000 per person. According to some polls, there are already over 5,000 people willing to pay that amount to become astronauts, even if only for a few minutes. That's a gross profit of 500 million dollars! After expenses that's still at least $300 million in profit. Imagine what Burt Rutan's company could do with that amount of cash.
Although Burt Rutan is remaining low-key on the subject, he's made no secret that he will continue to advance the state of the art in spacecraft, with his next big goal of being the first private company to launch people into orbit, not just low-earth orbit (LEO), but escape velocity out of earth's orbit altogether. If he suceeds in launching people into orbit, then the real space race will have begun, because it will set the psychological precedent that anyone can develop their own space craft with a modest sum of money.
Another factor to consider is as more of these vehicals are built, and more competitors enter the space tourist launch business, prices will continue to drop, more people will be able to afford a ticket, more vehicals will have to be built to meet the demand, prices will drop further, and so on. According to Rutan, it is not unreasonable to think a sub-orbital launch could cost as little as $5000 per person within 5-7 years.
Hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is hoping to soon be able to send inflatable buildings into orbit, aiming to take over from a defunct Nasa project, TransHab. Article in The Statesman.
Space tourism, perhaps the most obvious target for a terrestrial hotel owner, is just one of several commercial possibilities. Once space hotels look a serious prospect, then entertainment venues, such as zero-gravity sporting arenas, are unlikely to be far behind. Bigelow forecasts that space’s near-zero gravity will make it a covetable destination for pharmaceutical companies. Protein crystals can be grown to larger sizes when liberated from the oppressive effects of gravity; larger crystals are easier to study, and so simplify drug design.Genesis and Nautilus are built on the legacy of TransHab, a Nasa project to design inflatable modules for space. The modules, which would be inflated once in space, were meant to provide living room at the International Space Station and to become the template for habitats on the moon and Mars. Even though TransHab was in the advanced stages of testing at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, its future was punctured by rising costs and the reluctance of Congress to give the ISS more money.
According to one report, the demise of TransHab, which was essentially a three-storey apartment inside a cylindrical balloon, coincided with a visit by Bigelow to Nasa. On learning about the programme’s fate, he pledged to keep it going, apparently even salvaging parts from the agency’s rubbish bins. Space.com, the online newspaper, says that Bigelow Aerospace has paid for three patents covering inflatable space structures and now holds the sole rights to commercial development. Nasa, however, remains closely involved: Genesis will undergo vibration and vacuum-chamber testing at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Inflatables are viewed as a cheap, practical way to house people in space. The modules can be “flatpacked” into the noses of rockets — which means that they are relatively cheap to launch. The original TransHab had a deflated diameter of about 4.5 metres that doubled when inflated (probably using nitrogen gas), and a full height of about 14 metres. Most importantly, the usable volume was planned to be 330 cubic metres, providing more spacious living quarters than are currently available, and thus easing some psychological pressures of residing in space.
Nautilus is planning to sport similar dimensions, and is likely to exhibit other features similar to its predecessor, such as a thick shell designed to protect its inhabitants from bullet-speed meteorites and extremes of hot and cold. TransHab’s shell was composed of 12 layers, including Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof body armour, and Nextel, a ceramic fabric.
From the press release on Scaled Composites Website.
Mojave, CA: A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world’s first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth’s atmosphere.SpaceShipOne will rocket to 100 kilometers (62 miles) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, it will demonstrate that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise. This event could be the breakthrough that will enable space access for future generations.
I'm definitely going to this event. I plan on camping somewhere in the vicinity, and attending the launch and return ceremonies. If you're interested in hookng up, just email me.
There has been a several decades long debate about whether extra-terrestrial intelligence exists. As more data comes in about the nature of our universe, I think the odds are rapidly approaching 100% in the affirmative.
According to this recent story our universe is at least 78 billion light years radius or 156 billion light years across, minimum. The scientists are quick to point out this minimum size is based soley on a lack of instrument sensitivity, and a mild adjustment in instrument accuracy is likely to push this minimum to at least 192 billion light years across. They also point out the actual size of the universe is probably exponentially much larger.
Some people find these figures confusing since the age of our universe has been pinned down to 13.7 Billion years, or 14.7 Billion years according to this article. So they ask how could the universe expand to a size of at least 78 billion light years radius in only 13.7 billion years? The reason for this rapid early expansion is inflation. The speed of light wasn't violated, as it was the expansion of space itself that exceeded the speed of light.
So how big is our universe?
So huge in fact that I'm going to have to play around with scales so you can get a better idea.
According to the standard inflationary model of cosmology, the visible portion of our universe; the one mapped by our telescopes is an infinitesimally small speck in a much larger universe of at least a 1035 light-year across! I admit this number is really, really big, and almost impossible to imagine. So lets shrink everything down, WAY down, just so we can get a better grasp of it. Let's imagine that the entire universe that we have seen in all the world telescopes, all the galaxies, all trillion of them, extending out 13 billion light years in every direction is shrunk down to the size of a golf ball. Now you are holding the entire visible universe in the palm of your hand. So how big is the actualy 1035 lightyear universe in comparison? If we do a volume calculation, the actual universe contains 1060 of those golf balls! Wow, I guess we didn't shrink things down far enough, but this will have to do. So how big a volume would 1060 golf balls fill up? Try a sphere 850 light years across! So imagine a mass of golf balls that big, and each one of those golf balls contains all the stars and galaxies that we can see through our telescopes.
This is still almost beyond imagining, so lets take a slightly different approach. Imagine you are travelling so fast that you can go from on end of the galaxy to the other in just one second. That's a speed of 100,000 ly/sec. At this speed the entire galaxy would be in reach before you can say the word "go", and wam, you're there. At this speed, you could travel to the nearest galaxy Andromeda in 22 seconds. And you could cross from end of the visible universe to the other in 72 hours. Continuing on at this speed, it would take 115 days to travel a trillion light years, 315 years to travel a quadrillion, and 315,000 years to travel a quintillion or 1018 light years. And yet you have barely moved at all in comparison to the universe which is 1035 light years across. So, lets speed up our warp vehicals again, so that we can travel a quintllion light years every second. At such a speed we could cross the known universe 100 million times in one second. Ok, so now that we are travelling at a speed that might as well be infinite, how long would it take to cross from one side of the univese to the other?
Some physicists such as Max Tegmark believe the universe is actually infinite in size. If the galactic density of our own neighborhood is typical across this entire domain, and according to the data from the satellite COBE it is, then our bubble-universe should contain at least another 10100 galaxies. This is such a large figure, that it's difficult to explain it. So to give you an idea of how large a number this is, it's far larger the the number of atoms that compose every object in our own visible universe, which as you remember extends out 13.2 billion light years in every direction. This too is very difficult to conceptualize. So we'll have to scale down even further to a grain of sand. The number of atoms composing a gran of sand is about 1023 atoms, or 100 trillion trillion atoms for each grain of sand on a typical beach. And just think how many grains of sand are on your typical beach, let alone something the size of the Sahara. And that's just on the surface of the earth. All the sand in the world composes much less than 0.00001% of the mass of the earth. The number of atoms composing the Earth is about 1060. And the Earth in turn is one tiny planet around a small star in an ordinary galaxy, among hundreds of billions of galaxies in our very local neigborhood, which we call the visible universe. So 10100 is a very very big number of galaxies! Adding it all together and you get more galaxies in our universe than there are atoms composing every object in our visible universe.
Even if intelligent life is very, very rare, a number as large as 10100 is still likely to produce an abundance of life throughout the universe. A place where countless lifeforms evolve beyond their womb planets into highly advanced space-faring civilizations.
For arguments sake, lets imagine that primitive life happens once in the lifetime of a trillion galaxies, and out of those only one in a trillion ever evolves out of its womb planet into a space-faring civilization. In this example then we are still left with an astounding 1075 advanced societies - more alien cultures than the number of atoms composing planet Earth! Again, for some perspective on such a gargantuan number, there are more advanced civilizations partying it up around the galaxies than there are atoms in every single grain of sand on all the beaches and deserts in the world, and then some. That's more advanced alien civilizations than all the atoms composing our entire solar system!
Assuming life were this rare (and that's very unlikely, even with the Rare Earth Hypothesis), then our nearest star-hopping neighbors would probably be trillions of light-years away. If somehow the speed of light remains a barrier, then we might as well be alone, since we could never make contact with each other before the universe ended. However, I think such barriers will be smashed shortly after the singularity bottleneck. My guess is shortly after a civilization passes through their singularity, the entire universe will be in reach. Already scientists have found loopholes in this light speed barrier. According to Michael Alcubierre, we could hypersurf space-time using exotic matter, allowing the craft to exceed the speed of light by any desirable amount. Then there are traversible wormholes. For an enlightening discussion of some possible scenarios, see Michael C. Price's Some Implications of Traversible Wormholes.
So the problem won't be reaching any part of the universe, that will be childs play. The real challenge will be deciding which parts of the universe to go to. The divide between what is available, and what is conceivable would be enormous! According to Michael Price, the number of civilizations making contact with each other would exceed the ability of any civilization to fathom. According to Price, the implications of such 'Contact' would be staggering, the number of alien cultures would be so large, that it is unlikely anyone could ever catalog all of them, even if they did have computers the size of Jupiter. No historian could encompass the sweep of history, no biologist catalog the species. In a profound sense we'll have returned to a vast ancient world, surrounded by distant lands populated with mythical and fantastic creatures. Construction of a single universal map would be impossible.
The culture shock of trying to absorb such a vast amount of new data would take close to eternity... an eternity of never ending expansion, novelty and adventure.
Related Posts
Singularity Exo-Paleontology
Exotic Civilizations: Beyond Kardaschev
Sans-Ceiling Hypothesis
Listening to: Ozric Tentacles - Erpsongs - Tidal Otherness.
Wow again. Now that the X-Prize is likely to be won this year, it's now going to become an annual event in New Mexico.
Entrants in the races, scheduled to begin in the summer of 2006 after an exhibition the preceding year, will include many of the participants in the current Ansari X Prize Competition. The winner of that $10 million prize will be announced later this year.
Nearly 30 teams from seven nations are competing in that contest to design and build a spaceship capable of sending three passengers 60 miles into space and returning them safely. Those launches are under way at sites around the world.
After that event, the runners-up and other teams will focus on the New Mexico event, which will be the next stage in the mission of the X Prize Foundation to the further development of safe, cost-effective space transportation for the general public.
"Teams and their fans from around the world will gather annually in New Mexico to participate in the competition for the X Prize Cup," said Peter Mitchell, director of the Office of Space Commercialization in Santa Fe.
Rick Homans, secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department, said the ultimate goal of the competition is to encourage space commercialization.
"As the times get faster and faster, it means we are getting better at commercializing space and the cost is coming down," he said. "That's what this is all about, to drive the industry."
The entrants will compete for the fastest turnaround, maximum passengers per flight, maximum altitude and fastest flight from takeoff to landing. Winners will receive cash prizes and international media attention.
Thanks for the link Sauceruney.
This is exciting stuff. Burt Rutan's Spaceship on its third test flight went 2/3 of the way to space. I'm now very optimistic it will win the X Prize before this year is over, of going to space (61 miles up) twice in two weeks.
Chalk up another booming flight of the privately-backed SpaceShipOne, the piloted rocket plane designed to soar to the edge of space and glide to a runway landing.With pilot Mike Melvill at the controls -- following release from the White Knight turbojet-powered launch aircraft high above the Mojave, California desert -- SpaceShipOne punched through the sky today boosted by a hybrid propellant rocket motor.
Scaled Composites of Mojave is the builder of SpaceShipOne, an effort led by aviation innovator, Burt Rutan. The financial backer of the project is Microsoft mogul, Paul Allen.In a post-flight statement from the company, the SpaceShipOne team reported that their space plane flew to 212,000 feet altitude, almost 41 miles. NASA awards astronaut status to anyone who flies above 50 miles in altitude.
The FAA has granted Scaled Composites, the most promising contender for the X-Prize, a sub-orbital license:
The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced it has issued the world’s first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.
The license was issued April 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by aviation record-holder Burt Rutan, for a sequence of sub-orbital flights spanning a one-year period.
Bernal Spheres are large spherical living spaces for space colonies. What follows here is the pictures and text from two posters published in 1977 by the L5 Society. The text was written by Dick Fredericksen based on an interview of Gerard O'Neill. You'll notice the optimistic prediction that constructions like this could be built in the 1990s. Well, they probably could. But they weren't.
First, here's the exterior:
"Built to accommodate some 10,000 people, this "Bernal Sphere" space colony would serve as the residential area of a space manufacturing complex. The inhabitants would conduct a variety of manufacturing activities in space – some located within the structure shown here, others in nearby reaches of space. For example, a major industry is expected to be the provision of clean, inexpensive power, generated at satellite solar power stations and transmitted by microwave to Earth.
In the picture, "home" is to be found within the spherical portion. There is more than meets the eye: the visible surface is an outer shell which shields the habitat from cosmic rays and solar flares. This shell is accumulated from the slag of industrial processes, which are carried out using lunar surface material as input. Inside the shell, an inner sphere, almost a mile in circumference, rotates to provide "gravity" comparable to that of the Earth. Residents' homes stand upon the inside surface of the inner sphere.
The structure at the two ends of the axial portion are docking areas and the sites of zero-gravity manufacturing. The flat, paddle-like fixtures radiate away the waste heat of the habitat into the cold of outer space. Nearer to the sphere, the stacked rings are agricultural areas, helping provide for the needs of the workforce. Here agricultural crops, far less sensitive to radiation than humans would be, are grown in the intense sunlight of space. The simulated "gravity" in these areas is about 0.7 that of the Earth; the atmospheres are optimized for the growth of various crops.
The slightly curved plates, arranged in a circle surrounding the sphere, are the second stage in a series of mirrors which bring sunlight into the habitat at controlled hours. At a locus outside the picture, the mirrors of the first stage govern the "day-night" cycle. The second-stage mirrors pass the light at a desired angle to the ring-shaped mirrors capping the sphere. From these last, finally, the sunlight is directed into the interior of the sphere.
In the 1976 NASA Study on Space Manufacturing, habitats of this type, very efficient in their use of materials for shielding, are thought of as next steps beyond more utilitarian structures. An earlier stage of development would involve shield