STRANGE SPACE NEWS, WEIRD DARPA PROGRAMS, AND “BRACE YOURSELF” STATEMENTS FROM AN INSIDER ~ our "world" in the next few yrs is gonna B turned UP ~SIDE ..down :o geet READY FOLKS !!!
5 New Space Programs on DARPA’s Agenda, But Funding Down
Peeking Behind the Curtain
Among the first article's list of wild and weird DARPA space projects, the two that really caught my eye were these:
- Optical Aperture Self-assembly in Space, or OASIS, which calls for constructing large optical apertures from smaller, modular components that have self-organized in orbit.
- Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites, which builds on nearly a decade’s worth of agency work to establish a robotics operation in geosynchronous orbit to perform servicing tasks.
Now, with that in mind, consider this bit of technological wizardry already accomplished by - you guessed it - DARPA, shared with us by another individual, Mr. S.D.:
Quadriplegic woman flies F-35 with nothing but her thoughts
Quadriplegic woman flies F-35 with nothing but her thoughts
Now note what DARPA has been able to achieve:
"Scheuermann—who is quadriplegic because of an hereditary genetic disease—was recruited by DARPA for its robotics programs. Scientists and doctors implanted electrodes in the left motor cortex of her brain in 2012 to allow her to control a robotic arm, which she did successfully. But she's not using the robotic arms to control the joystick in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II simulator used for the tests. She is controlling the plane with "nothing but her thoughts," according to Prabhakar, pure neural signaling:"Instead of thinking about controlling a joystick, which is what our ace pilots do when they're driving this thing, Jan's thinking about controlling the airplane directly. For someone who's never flown—she's not a pilot in real life—she's flying that simulator directly from her neural signaling."
In other words, DARPA has demonstrated the capability to control and fly and airplane, and a complicated military one at that, solely through thought,
no human motor-mechanical skills needed. Would such a capability be
useful for building "self-assemblining large optical apertures from
smaller, modular components that have self-organized in orbit"? Answer:
indubitably.
So in the
context of (1) remote-control and assembly of large modular space
components (for large optical apertures, remember), (2) one hundred year
stated goals of warp-capability, (3) weird statements from a former
late head of Lockheed-Martin's skunk works about errors in the
equations, and so on, we now come to these statements from Mr. Hale:
"While I’d like to blog about what my clients are doing, well, you will just have to wait for them to tell you themselves; I’m not authorized"But what I can tell you is that it’s amazing. There are so many organizations working on so many aspects of space flight: new vehicles, new engines, new capabilities. Whew. I don’t know if they are all going to make it but I’m sure at least some of them will. There is a renaissance coming in space travel. Some of it is from the government, yes, but a lot of it is not. Some of it is coming from garage shop inventors and some of it is coming from the biggest industrial corporations, and a lot of it is coming from folks in between. Much of the really interesting advances won’t be the big jobs programs that the politicians like. If you are a politician and want to help the space program – you can send money, but better to open doors to private industry, remove barriers, reduce red tape. Now that made me sound like I read the Wall Street Journal too much. Lest you think I’ve gone over to the ‘anything goes’ camp, I will quickly say that there is a very real place for the government to make sure that adequate safety precautions are followed. Not exactly like what is done for airliners, but something more fitted to this new, higher risk, higher energy field.
"Anyway, I’ve got to say it’s been a great ride: all those years working on the forefront of the big government space programs, and now helping all the industry geniuses break through to the future.
"Just stand by.
"You will be amazed."(All emphases added.)
A
renaissance in space travel, compared to the "dark ages" of the 1940s to
the close of the shuttle era? Garage shop inventors? A need for
government safety regulations in this "new, higher risk, higher energy
field?" I don't know about you, but it does not sound like Mr. Hale is
talking exclusively about rockets... In fact, I don't know about you,
but it sounds to me as if we're being gently prepared, over the past few
weeks, with all the strange space news, for some heavy duty changes in
our culture, science, and society over the next several years.
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