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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

wbtake1 - 01:04pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10367 of 10657)

BTW- Plasma screen technology was developed by Tektronix for the USAF and the USN for their fighter aircraft. I love my big screen plasma TV! Thanks to the USAF and the USN I can watch HDTV and enjoy a great picture from the plasma display!

hubsnub - 01:06pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10368 of 10657)

NMD is complete bogus. The system is not even close to operating accurately, and the cost is far more immense than our country can afford. Surely, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and many other large corporations will make huge profits on this system. Even after millions of dollars already spent, the NMD system can't even tell the difference between a missle and a weather ballon, yet we proceed anyway. How can the Bush administration lie to the people so frequently, and so flagrantly? Its ridiculous!

wbtake1 - 01:17pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10369 of 10657)

I would say 3 hits out of 5 is moving in the right direction. Have you ever heard of if you don't succeed try again. If we follow your logic we never would have put a man on the moon nor would we have the INSS up above. Both are and were very costly and people died in the process but look at the results. I suspect NMD will be fully functional within the next few years and the world will be a safer place.

Like I said before 60-70% success rate is better then NOTHING!

wbtake1 - 01:28pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10370 of 10657)

"Bush administration lie to the people so frequently, and so flagrantly?"

Please back this up with facts! I mean real facts that will stand up in court. You accuse Bush of being a liar but offer no hard evidence to prove it. So until you can prove it in a court of law that Bush is a liar and lies to the American people I'd rethink your statement.

I am NOT a total Bush supporter but I don't think people should make these kinds of statement until it is proven beyond doubt.

I was one that would not even talk about Bill Clinton until the courts found him guilty of being a liar. He was fined, had his law licensee revoke by the supreme court and was impeached. When Bush meets that criteria then I will agree that Bush is a liar, until then you are blowing smoke!

armel7 - 02:17pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10371 of 10657)
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vhurtado - 04:49pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10372 of 10657)

There are countless new medical devices that are saving lives from the NMD research and even some advances in the computer industry have benefited from the research.

Name one?

wbtake1 - 05:12pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10373 of 10657)

Name one?

OK I will the desat monitor that is used in a lot of NICUs'. In fact the sales pitch that was given to my wife by HP touted this desat monitor as revolutionary technology that was developed from SDI and NMD. Never the less the UCSF ICN now has 29 of them at a tune of $75,000.00 a pop!

wbtake1 - 05:18pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10374 of 10657)

BTW- the new INSS docking radar and tracking system is another item that NMD gave us. My friend at NASA helped install the guidance and targeting systems in a few of our space shuttles. Some of the very same people that are working on NMD were at KSC helping with the installation.

armel7 - 08:46pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10375 of 10657)
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wbtake1 - 09:28pm Dec 13, 2001 EST (#10376 of 10657)

The space shuttle blew up too but we did not shut it down nor should we shut down MD just because of the rocket failing. 12 Atlas rockets failed before the NASA and airo-space folks got it right. The Mercury rocket was almost scrapped but was fixed and it was considered one of the best. 17 Mercury rocket exploded in mid air.

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