defensetech.org — "China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in... a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft," Defense News is reporting. And, at least in theory, those lasers might be able temporarily take offline America's most powerful orbiting spies, like the giant electro-optical Keyhole spacecraft..
Sep 25, 2006 View in Crawl 4
rexkwandoSep 25, 2006
Isn't this an act of war?
alrahmanSep 25, 2006
Good. More power to China from the war mongering USA.
swordedgeSep 25, 2006
It is preparation. The speed at which the coalition forces beat Saddam way back in 1991 scared the bejeezus out of them. Now, they are doing the same thing USSR tried to do, steal our tech. The purpose of the ground based lasers is to, should hostilities ever break out, remove the ability of cruise missiles, armed forces, etc to use GPS guidance.Our military ability scares china silly so they are developing defenses against us.
vuke69Sep 25, 2006
A cold war between China and the US would do neither of us any good. We need their stuff, and they need our money. I don't care if there is a huge trade imbalance between us. The more money we send them, the better.Let me explain...The seeds of change have are already starting to sprout in China. The middle class is growing exponentially, and people are becoming more educated about the world outside of China. And they have discovered one critical thing, they like money, and they like freedom. In 20 years China will be USA v2.0 (whatever that means) I envision (and hope for) a peaceful transfer of power, or even closer to an evolution, from communism, to a more open, democratic type system (probably with strong socialist roots though, nature of the beast). They are smart, they will learn from our mistakes. But I'm sure by now they understand that the tighter the grip, the more will slip through your fingers. Because they will have also learned from the attempts of the Soviets to change to a more open system of government. And how they not only landed on their face, but bounced a couple of times, then managed to kick themselves in the face while still bleeding profusely from the mouth and nose. So they will learn. And they WILL become the most powerful economic force on the planet. Hoping they will be a democracy, is probably asking too much. But as long as they are "good guys" (fair to their citizens, play nice in the sandbox, etc.), that's enough for me.Ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times"Interesting times indeed...
coderifousSep 25, 2006
OrangeTide said:"One problem is that you can't put a spy satellite up that only goes over the middle east. you put that puppy in a polar orbit and it will eventually pass over every country on earth."This is incorrect, they can have a satellite that "only goes over" a single place. I have no idea if this is done with spy sats, but it makes perfect sense that this is done with entertainment (TV) satellites.<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit</a>
fanzhangoSep 26, 2006
"If you keep looking over the fence at you neighbor?s back yard, you?re going to get poked in the eye"Straight from the article, couldn't agree more.
videoctSep 26, 2006
if only we could harness the power of a space laser and direct it towards a giant Jiffy Pop bag - we could feed the world!
Closed AccountSep 26, 2006
No you play Brittney Spears these days. They probably do too
polyfrolicSep 26, 2006
"First of all, according to treaty, a nation does not own outer space above their territory. Shooting down a satellite while it happens to be 200 km above China is like sinking a ship that happens to be 200 km off their shore."What you are ignoring is that the Bush administration and the Pentagon have been building "Star Wars II" in violation of this and other treaties. It is my understanding that the treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear warheads specifically forbids USA from researching ANY Star Wars type tech.Are treaties only good as long as USA finds them useful? The American government forbids any privately held satellite from watching any sensitive area in USA or outside USA that the American government wants to keep secret.
zeuserSep 26, 2006
A slide show pointer laser is in the .001 watt (miliwatt) range. 30 Watts is more than enough just to blind a camera at about 150 KM.PS: Never look directly at a 30 watt laser. You'll be permanently blinded. Heck, even a pen sized laser pointer is dangerous to your eyes.
brilliantSep 27, 2006
Why dig down diggywiggit?He is right, chinese pronounced "R"s as "L"s instead of the other way round.It is the Japanese who pronounced "L"s as "R"s.You guys got way too brainwashed by Mr Tuong Lu Kim, the owner of City Wok of South Park. His voiceover is done by Trey Parker for your info.