Obama considering linking Defense Dept. with NASA

Sounds innocuous, but such a move could (finally), force the transfer of some of the "Black Project" technology to the public sector NASA programs. The Orion, Ares programs have been chugging along with just adequate hardware. Our lead in spacecraft hardware design is not so obvious when looking at our proposed, pending replacement for the Shuttle fleet. Those in the know on the topic have been scratching their heads as the hardware for the Orion project has been disclosed. The technology proposed is reminiscent of the Nineteen Sixties Apollo style rockets, not what you might expect for the United State's latest rocket hardware supposedly designed to get us to the Moon and then Mars. Instead of an upgrade to the Space Shuttle, the Orion feels and looks like a downgrade.

Story, on cnet here,...

Citing people who've discussed the idea with the Obama team, Bloomberg says they believe collaboration between the country's civilian space agency and the military's space program would speed up the time in which the U.S. is able to send people back to the moon. The main--and very costly--goal is to build a rocket that can carry Orion, NASA's next-generation spacecraft, to the International Space Station, the moon, and further out into the solar system. NASA has planned to use its new Ares I rocket for that purpose. Last year, it completed preliminary design review for the Ares rocket, which is slated to launch for the first time in 2015.

It should be interesting to see what develops from this new relationship between the two agencies, one purely military the other a mix of the two. Two possibilities come to mind if such a proposal were to be instituted, it may result in an infusion of money and advanced Military technical knowhow. The other possibility is that formerly top secret hardware including advanced propulsion technologies will be authorized. Sounds unlikely and farfetched, but not many of us know the full extent of our most secret advanced hardware and its capabilities. It is a certainty that we have some Top secret capabilities that have not been disclosed because of their potential for Military applications. But with our economy in a dangerous downward trend and China planning to return humankind to the Moon, we have to make a choice. Do we maintain a secret lead in Military hardware and software, or do we sacrifice some of those capabilities to further our scientific potential?

Good post but this is already herewww.abovetopsecret.com...
Not one line

[edit on 4-1-2009 by alyosha1981]

reply to post by RING0


Orion project=Apollo on steroids.

And its odd that Obama will cut back NASA"s budget even further, then later say NASA and the military will be linked...when NASA is already linked to the military..its part of the DOD, always has been since its inception. One only need to read the NASA charter to see this fact.



Cheers!!!!

I'm sorry to say he needs to gut the entire upper echelon of NASA. Most are ex engineers that have ties to thier former employers and are still trying to push thier company's line of tech. (Mr. Griffin please stand up). They don't care how much money or how safe it is as long as thier portfolio continues to rise.

Could be a small step towards disclosure, actually stating that the DOD and NASA work together will raise questions about what they're doing, it would give them a chance to respond and tell us a little more about what's going on out there.

Maybe.

If the proposed linking of the agencies takes place, it will be a significant, history changing event for our space program. The prestige of the United States is on the line, the entire world is watching to see how we respond to the coming challenges. We should all be wondering, why we have allowed the space shuttle to stop flying BEFORE we have a working replacement for it.

NASA usually has a contingency plan to cover every possibility, but in this case it looks like poor planning or a deliberate decision to underfund the Shuttle program in order to fund something else. According to Garry Mcinnon, we have a top secret hidden space program with fully developed anti-gravity technology at its core. That would be great news, but I'll believe it when I see it, even the most hardened skeptics would admit that we could have very advanced technologies that are kept secret for security reasons. For example, what are we using as a replacement for the mothballed SR-71 series of aircraft?

If we find that our Government has been hiding exotic propulsion systems including anti-gravity, all in the name of military advantage. That would be a shame, because such propulsion technology would enable us to travel to other stars systems with existing spacecraft designs right now. Never mind just going to Mars, if we had this capability, we could immediately become a star traveling class society. I realize that the most reasonable outcome of this inter agency joining will be that the Orion program will be scrapped in favor of using known and proven military rocket delivery systems, but it is fun to speculate on the many possibilities.