US military whips out credit card for unmanned low-Earth-orbit outpost prototype (aka a repurposed ISS cargo pod)
- Reference: 1595033680
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/18/sierra_nevada_space_station/
- Source link:
Luckily for the aerospace biz, it won’t have to start from scratch. SNC, founded in 1963 and headquartered in Reno, Nevada, developed something similar called the Shooting Star, a transport pod designed to be attached to Dream Chaser, a plane it designed to fly in low Earth orbit.
Shooting Star and Dream Chaser were built for an earlier contract awarded by NASA to send 10,000lbs of supplies, such as food and scientific equipment, to the International Space Station (ISS). Now it appears that, while the Dream Chaser is a busted flush for ISS deliveries – it's [1]missing its windows – the Shooting Star capsule could be lofted into orbit as a free-flying craft.
[2]
A Dalek with wings? No, an illustration of a Shooting Star ... Image credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
“The current Shooting Star is already designed with significant capabilities for an orbital outpost and by adding only a few components we are able to meet the Department of Defense needs,” [3]said Steve Lindsey, senior veep of strategy for SNC’s Space Systems and a former NASA astronaut.
“We are proud to offer our transport vehicle to DoD as a free-flying destination for experimentation and testing, expanding beyond its current payload service capabilities for Dream Chaser cargo missions.”
The US Dept of Defense wants the corporation to transform the 16-foot-long pod into what it calls an “unmanned orbital outpost.” The machine is expected to fly autonomously in low-Earth orbit, and will be used to carry out military experiments in micro-gravity conditions and serve as a hub for spacecraft to stop and refuel.
Russia admits, yup, the Americans are right: One of our rocket's tanks just disintegrated in Earth's orbit [4]READ MORE
It must also support in-space assembly and manufacturing of hardware that can be tested and evaluated for future use. The floating lab may only be for low-Earth orbit for now, but SNC hinted it could build these outposts for orbits further out – think somewhere between the Earth and the Moon.
The exact cost of the contract awarded to SNC by the US Defense Innovation Unit was not revealed.
“We’re excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star,” said SNC CEO Fatih Ozmen. “It was originally developed for NASA resupply missions to the International Space Station, and since then we keep identifying new capabilities and solutions it offers to a wide variety of customers. The possible applications for Shooting Star are really endless.” ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/16/snc_dream_chaser/
[2] https://www.sncorp.com/media/3052/udc_cm_freeflyer-recce_002.png
[3] https://www.sncorp.com/press-releases/dod-selects-snc-to-design-develop-unmanned-orbital-outpost-prototype/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/12/russia_rocket_tank_disintegrates/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Nothing new to see here. Anyone remember the DynaSoar flightless space plane the Pentagon was planning on launching around the time of Gemini? Complete with an orbital laboratory attached to the back, and provisions to last at least a week in orbit?
" All good things come to he who waits " ... :) and of course the interminable B-grade space movies of the 50s where the space ships would stop by an orbital bowser to refill their tanks before carrying on their insane adventurers ...
>applications for Shooting Star are really endless
Kinteic Bormbardment?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment
applications for Shooting Star are really endless
Meteor Shower Shooting Star? sotto voce " Honey, I left the gas on again ... full bore "
The Pentagon Experiment with a Novel Tactic on a New Tack for Faster Tracking of WWWebs?
and of course the interminable B-grade space movies of the 50s where the space ships would stop by an orbital bowser to refill their tanks before carrying on their insane adventurers ... ..... Sanguma
That has morphed, Sanguma, and nowadays do insane adventurers and spaced astronauts orbitally browse internetworking world wide webs to refill their tanks with further information and greater intelligence for deeper and darker/higher and brighter flights.
And that fundamental simplification and ubiquitous complication has the Pentagon absolutely terrified ....... and I'm not prone to using the word 'absolutely' without due cause and fully expect the premise to be realistically denied and virtually dismissed, but such is as is, and as an almighty weapon on/in all the major and minor metadata base mining fields of interminable play today, one's worst nightmare brought into life for real if deserving of censure and punishment.
And another valid Pentagon type fear, sensibly recognised in Myriad Other SMARTR Defence Attacking Forces, is are they too late to the party and all dressed up in the wrong gear to enjoy all of the benefits that are the rewards for sharing great leads freely amongst the strangest of friends.
Look over at China
Last month I read this, there hasn't been a suitable article from elReg, this will have to do for my rant:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20200617-china-s-quantum-satellite-enables-first-totally-secure-longrange-messages
"In the middle of the night, invisible to anyone but special telescopes in two Chinese observatories, satellite Micius sends particles of light to Earth to establish the world’s most secure communication link. Micius is the world’s first quantum communications satellite and has, for several years, been at the forefront of quantum encryption"
Please don't waste money copying the Chinese.
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Entanglement as claimed:
a) You have two photons or two particles P1 and P2.
b) Those particles have a bunch of properties, polarization, frequency, spin, etc...., lets call those {e1,e2,e3,e4}
c) You detect those properties using detectors D1 and D2.
d) D1 is used to measure P1, and D2 measures P2.
e) You 'entangle' P1 and P2 by passing them through a crystal.
f) At this point D1 and D2 continue to give *different* property measurements for arriving P1 and P2s.
g) You filter P1 and P2s such that some of the parameters are the same, e.g. (P1.e1 == P2.e1 && P1.e2 == P2.e2 && P1.e3 == P2.e3)
h) You then find that, shock horror P1.e4 is now equal to P2.e4! The other properties are the same too now.
i) You assert that the act of measuring properties e1,e2,and e3 also set these states, and also set it for any 'entangled' particle, in this case P2, regardless of space and time. Even if P2 is across the universe, suddenly, bang and its properties are set such that P1 and P2 now have the same properties. But only when measured.
j) You have a Bells test to 'prove it', but its done after the filtering.
k) Quantum encryption is a schema built on a key exchange by quantum entanglement in the belief that a middle man measuring properties would also set them which can be detected due to the schema.
l) For Quantum encryption to work, quantum entanglement 'spooky distance effect' has to be real.
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Entanglement as is:
a) P1 is matter, and so is D1, both electromagnetic in nature.
b) P1 is in motion, whenever you detect it, it has moved, so it is in motion.
c) if the particle is in motion then so is the detector. Both are matter. Both have the same nature.
d) You are measuring the effect of P1 on D1, the *different*, not P1.
e) If P1 and D1's motion was identical, then there would be no effect of P1 on D1 and you would detect nothing.
f) Suppose P1 is oscillating polarized up/down, and D1 is an oscillation polarized left-right. That difference is a rotation, a spin in a plane. You detect a particular spin property.
g) If P1 is up/down and D1 is down/up, you detect an oscillation in a polarized axis. P1 is the same oscillation, the detector has changed, not the observed particle. But in one case spin was observed, in another an oscillation in a line was observed.
h) So spin and polarization/oscillation are inter-related. Not independent.
i) And if P1 was oscillation left/right and D1 oscillating up-down, that too would result in the same spin in the same plane as case f.
j) So multiple combinations of properties of P1 and D1 can produce the same detected net result.
k) So, you pass P1 and P2 through a crystal, it has a regular structure and regular field orientation and P1 and P2 now oscillate the same way.
l) But D1 and D2 may be oscillating differently, so P1 on D1 measurements will not equal P2 on D2 measurements until you equalize D1 and D2.
m) So now you filter for the matching properties (P1.e1 == P2.e1 && P1.e2 == P2.e2 && P1.e3 == P2.e3)
n) Which selects the subset of measurements for which D1 and D2 will be the same oscillation.
o) And bingo, you've selected the combination for which P1 and P2 are oscillating the same and D1 and D2 are oscillating the same, and thus the net difference is the same and P1.e4 == P2.e4 as observed by their corresponding D1 and D2.
p) So entanglement. The spooky distance effect, is just filtering, and an encryption based on it would never work without the filter or similar trick to equalize D1 and D2.
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At minimum indulge me here, and prove those various parameters of motion over the field (everything from translational, spin, oscillations, polarization etc.) are actually independent.