ReutersPresident Bush (news - web sites)'s plan to expand the exploration of space parallels U.S. efforts to control the heavens for military, economic and strategic gain.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld long has pushed for technology that could be used to attack or defend orbiting satellites as well as a costly program, heavily reliant on space-based sensors, to thwart incoming warheads.
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The moon, scientists have said, is a source of potentially unlimited energy in the form of the helium 3 isotope -- a near perfect fuel source: potent, nonpolluting and causing virtually no radioactive byproduct in a fusion reactor....Gerald Kulcinski of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison estimated the moon's helium 3 would have a cash value of perhaps $4 billion a ton in terms of its energy equivalent in oil.
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The weaponization of space is a bad idea for several reasons.
First, we depend completely on our satellites. Arming space makes them targets. By placing armed weapons in space, that means other countries will have to develop and test anti-satellite systems. Second, testing weapons in space, let alone detonating weapons there in a conflict on purpose or by accident, will leave a debris field that rockets will never be able to cross. Remember, a piece of debris the size of a postage stamp cracked a shuttle window. And accidental launches from such platforms puts the whole world at risk.
What a bunch of chimps.
Unembedded.com
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