Oberg (MSNBC): Fear and loathing in orbit -- Space robot's failure adds to confusion over weapons
- From: "Jim Oberg" <jameseoberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 17:43:06 GMT
Oberg (MSNBC): Fear and loathing in orbit -- Space robot's failure adds to
confusion over weapons
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7671805/
ANALYSIS By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC
Updated: 12:48 p.m. ET April 29, 2005
This month's embarrassing collision between NASA's space robot and its
target satellite may have a regrettable "space spinoff" effect as well. The
Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology, or DART, could focus
renewed attention on the question of how easy it actually might be to
deliberately hit a space target with a military "killer satellite" - and
whether such a weapon was desirable, or needed to be barred by international
treaties.
This issue has been simmering for a long time, but it is rapidly
approaching a diplomatic boil as some U.S. military space tests, along with
alarmist rhetoric, suggest that such weapons are just over the horizon. So
blatant are the political agendas involved, and so technologically naïve are
the warnings, that any reliable public debate seems hopeless.
The DART spacecraft was supposed to approach and delicately circle a
target satellite on April 15, but it apparently became lost and began
blundering around blindly, quickly exhausting its rocket fuel. During the
course of these wild swings through space, DART actually collided with the
target, a small military communications testbed named "MUBLCOMM."
NASA officials did not release this information until journalists
confronted them several days later with evidence received from space
workers.
Runaway debate
Even before the launch, DART had been accused of being a cover for a
space weaponization program directed by the Pentagon. Although space has
been militarized since the very beginning with satellites that support
earthside combat, and although surface-to-surface missiles travel through
space along their paths, only on a few rare occasions has hardware actually
been put into orbit to conduct direct combat. That's what "space weaponizati
on" has come to signify.
But is the test of a robot rendezvous satellite an unambiguous prelude
to introducing such weapons? Space experts contacted by MSNBC.com
unanimously dismissed such notions as unproven, unlikely and even in some
cases preposterous.
Aside from the existence of several compelling non-weapon uses for such
a robot rendezvous capability, these experts pointed out that other nations
(such as Japan) and private corporations (such as Orbital Recovery Ltd.) are
pursuing parallel development projects, none with any weapons application.
Some missions would refuel or repair unmanned satellites. Others would
carry supplies to the international space station. When the time comes to
bring back the first soil samples from Mars, the canister containing the
samples must be linked automatically to a homeward-bound rocket in orbit
around the Red Planet. Initial robot rendezvous test maneuvers at Mars are
already being planned for later this decade.
But the theme of "space weaponization" is a challenging one, and the
United States finds itself isolated on the issue for a number of reasons.
Any hope of a logical resolution depends on a rational debate over U.S.
capabilities and ambitions in space. DART's accidental contribution to this
debate will only make a bad situation worse.
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