Alternative Energy and the Ion Drive Engine - Star Trek and Andromeda

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see

Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be

Tennyson, Locksley Hall

The United States of America is on a roll. An Alternative Energy roll. After recently declaring that the White House Executive Mansion and all Government Agencies would be taken off the grid via Solar Power as of the Spring of 2011 AD as stated in the article “White House to install rooftop Solar Panels”, published October 5, 2010 5:19 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech, , Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, did one better.

He has now signed into Law the NASA Authorization Act (2010), which ratifies spending to the tune of US$19 billion budget for the Fiscal Year 2011 AD with details as stated in the article “President Obama signs new vision for U.S. Space Exploration into Law”, published Monday October 11, 2010 6:15 pm ET by Tariq Malik SPACE.com Managing Editor, Yahoo News and confirmed in the article “Obama signs NASA up to a new future”, published 11 October 2010 Last updated at 17:39 GMT by Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News.

Worth your Sunday reading, if you have been living under a rock and had not heard the news. This is a follow-on, to use the cricket analogy, of a promise Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, made with regards to NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration) future by his submission for debate of a US$19 billion budget.

This was the so-called 2011 NASA Budget Request, in a Senate Committee Hearing in the week of Tuesday March 2^nd 2010 AD, to the House Science and Technology Committee – only to be up with strong bi-partisan opposition by Senators and Administrators. History, folks, has been made again.

Space, the Final Frontier, Star Trek style.

This is a budget that Senator Bart Gordon (R-Tennessee), Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, at this heated discussion (C-SPAN do you now archive and stream via YouTube?), called a “radical change”. Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) took it further, calling it “[a] radical departure from all previous NASA plans under any administration”.

He further poured more scorn on President Barack Obama, President of the United States of America by stating further, quote: “It cancels all major existing human spaceflight programs . . . and replaces all that with little more than a hope and a prayer that commercial providers will eventually pick up the slack”.

These words were exchanged in a Senate Committee Hearing in the week of Tuesday March 2^nd 2010 AD. That was almost eight (8) months ago. Now, this “radical departure” that will save the American Taxpayers billions of dollars and guarantee American Dominance in Space on a more streamlined budget, involving Privatization as hinted by the angry words of Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) has now been passed into Law.

This is in the form of the NASA Authorization Act (2010), which ratifies spending to the tune of this exact amount for the Fiscal Year 2011 AD with details as stated in the article “President Obama signs new vision for U.S. Space Exploration into Law”, published Monday October 11, 2010  6:15 pm ET by Tariq Malik SPACE.com Managing Editor, Yahoo News and confirmed in the article “Obama signs NASA up to a new future”, published 11 October 2010 Last updated at 17:39 GMT by Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News.

Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America has laid claims to reducing spending on not only Space Exploration at NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration) by privatization of the delivery of payloads e.g. Commercial and Military Satellites into Space by utilizing the same Military and Commercial Contractors to:

1. Build reusable spacecraft to accomplish the job of the ageing, outdated and inefficient STS Shuttle Program thus leaving NASA to focus on robotic explorations of the Solar System
2. Establishing a permanent Moon Base
3. Putting a Man on Mars by 2020 AD
4. Deep Space Exploration [beyond our Solar System], both Robotic and Manned

Or as I like to call it, Project Enterprise, straight out of Star Trek as expounded in the article “Is NASA's New Space Plan Really that Radical?”, published Tuesday March 2 2010 by Clara Moskowitz, Senior Writer SPACE.com, Yahoo News.

In the words of Neil Armstrong after safely landing in the Eagle Capsule on the surface of the Moon on July 20^th 1969 AD and taking his first steps: “That’s one small step for Man. That’s one giant leap for Mankind”.

Folks, John Public is feeling nostalgic as I remember how I felt when watching those old film reels of that historic touchdown on the Moon. I daresay such fribble-frabble counts for a good blog, so I will get straight to the point.

Effectively, the NASA Authorization Act (2010) cancels the Constellation program, which involved the construction by NASA of the Ares I and Ares V rockets to carry the new spaceship Orion into low Lunar orbit and back. This, America, is the privatization of cash guzzling NASA, traditionally a big spender in excess of US$100 billion on average per year on year, with cost overruns and reoccurring expenditure a part of the culture of waste at NASA.

I say waste, before NASA pundits turn their “laser” on me, not in the sense that scientific research is a wasteful exercise, but merely that it seemed that NASA was basically akin to a hamster in a wheel inside of a cage, going round and round but reaching nowhere, re-treading the same worn path of Moon Exploration, still living in the shadow of former President John F Kennedy, after whom the JFK Airport and Space Centers are named, but like our Jamaican politicians and Michael Manley, never seeming to come up with anything new and different from the original dream of Man on the Moon.

Perhaps, President John F Kennedy words in his speech in May 1961 AD, when he committed US$24 billion still haunts their dreams: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a Man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth”.

The program which President John F Kennedy initiated in July 16^th 1969 AD culminated with the successful landing on the Moon on July 20^th 1969 AD, a date I agree when Man kissed the heavens and visited another planet, was breathtakingly scientific, to sound off on my inner Physics Geek. Neil Armstrong uttered these words: “Tranquility base here; the Eagle has landed”.

All of this is not surprising, as under the Nixon Administration, Apollo and Skylab 1 and Skylab 2 programs were cancelled. Neither is this recent mid-program change by the Obama Administration, best summed up in the words of Roger Launius, Space history curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum: “Of course it's happened in the past; of course programs have been canceled — they've been canceled in mid-stream”.

His statements are bolstered by veteran NASA administrator Charles Bolden, who was also at the Senate Committee Hearing in the week of Tuesday March 2^nd 2010 AD, commenting thus, by saying, quote: “This is not a radical departure from anything; it's just a departure from the way we were trying to get there”.

Folks, NASA is effectively being put on a “high carbohydrate, high calorie, low fat diet”, effectively a return to their traditional roots of Research and Development, as in my opinion as a Jamaican and as a holder of a Degree in Electronics and Chemistry for the University of the West Indies (2005 to 2009) and a prior Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications (1997 to 2000), (so you can see I am WELL certified to make my comments!!!) they were looking rather overweight, what with previous fatal failures with the Challenger (1986 AD) and Colombia (2003 AD) STS Shuttle, both exploding spectacularly in mid-flight.

But the man who expresses my view best and gets my stamp of approval is Senator Bill Nelson, bipartisan deal broker in the Barack Obama Administration who used the following arguments, quote: “If we can't develop a new rocket for US$11.5 billion, building on a lot of the technologies that were already developed in spending US$9 billion - if we can't do it for that then we ought to question whether we can build a rocket”. Well spoken, Senator Bill Nelson: Efficiency is the new mantra of NASA.

Ironically, it was in 2003 AD I was still an employee of C&W and being interviewed by Nurse Gunning at C&W before being made redundant, at which time I had predicted the very same thing would happen to Challenger at NASA. Strange coincidence, which I remember like yesterday, but it is true, believe it or not.

So the signing into Law of this historic change of direction by NASA into Law in the form of the NASA Authorization Act (2010) effectively solidifies the previous utterances of the Obama Administration and Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America and his Bold New Vision – with more details.

This new legislation, passed into Law by Congress in the Week of Sunday October 3^rd 2010 AD, will see NASA being allocated a measly US$19 billion to NASA for the coming Fiscal Year 2011 AD, the Year of the All-Electric Vehicle.

Boeing, a long time US Military Contractor, has designs for a Satellite Deployment using unmanned un-refuelled forever flying UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) as stated in the article “Boeing eyes five-year flight for Solar plane”, published September 16, 2010 11:16 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Cutting Edge and reusable vehicles for Space tourism as stated in the article “Boeing plans to start Space tourism flights by 2015”, published  September 15, 2010 9:10 AM PDT by Tim Hornyak, CNET News – Crave.

Solar Sail technology would enable lower earth orbits and potential cheaper satellite deployment as stated in the article “Solar Sails could allow New Orbits for Satellites”, published Sunday August 15 2010, 9:47  am ET Zoë Macintosh, SPACE.com Staff Writer, SPACE.com fro Yahoo! News Yahoo News.

Americans, don’t you just love Capitalism?

Finally, Military Contractors will have to put their money where their mouth is as it relates to developing vehicles for Space Travel and the deployment and maintenance of Satellites.

A contract windfall for these long-time Military Contractors, somewhat akin to what happened to Shurpower, a Generator Contractor with MiPhone for the past nine (9) years, who had their contract renewed, and given an expanded island-wide responsibility for the Maintenance of Telecom Provider CLARO’s Generator Maintenance.

Meanwhile, for the next ten (10) years until about 2020 AD American Astronauts will have to take the Russian Soyuz and European Space Agency “taxi” into Space to do repairs on the Hubble Telescope, the now obsolete ISS (International Space Station) as well as the deployment, maintenance and repair of the current fleet of satellites, both Government and Private Communications and Spy Satellites.

It a bold new future for Space Exploration, as it is a push into the unknown. NASA pundits can rest assured that they are not alone in “boldly going where no Man has gone before”, to quote Star Trek.

The American Auto Industry is also transitioning to All-Electric Vehicles by 2011 AD, a step into the unknown, despite fears of lackluster sales as stated in a rather strong opinion piece by senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog Martin LaMonica as stated in the article “Automakers push ahead on plug-ins despite unknowns”, published October 14, 2010 11:10 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech

This is further expressed in another of his articles entitled “Auto Industry pros counter electric-car hype”, published October 13, 2010 10:03 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

The business of the acceptance of All-Electric Vehicles by a skeptical American voting public by next year, despite its Green billing, remains up in the air, and in fact people may buy All-Electric Vehicles just as a means of voicing their consensus on the continued dependence of The United States of America on Saudi Arabian Oil.

The US of A needs to decouple themselves from Saudi Arabian Oil as opined in the article “The Electric Car Might be the Perfect Second Ride”, published August 3, 2010, 4:35PM EST By Ed Wallace, WALLACE'S WORLD - BusinessWeek, for which I have a rather elegant Physics solution.

But that is Rocket fuel for another article on how to make All-Electric Vehicles cheap enough for everyone to afford.

Finally, as a point of historical firsts, this will be the First American Administration that will be Privatizing Space Travel and the deployment and maintenance of Satellites but also the first time that NASA will now be looking into Travel into Deep Space.

Note: Travel to Deep Space. Does this mean than Research and Development being done by NASA will be focusing on developing propulsion systems that can carry Man to the Stars?

Ion Drive Engines, like the ones used for the first time ever on the successful JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) Hayabusa [Silver Hawk] probe that visited the asteroid Itokawa and returned to Earth with the first samples from a celestial body other than the Moon as stated in the article “Hayabusa Japanese asteroid probe aimed toward Earth”, published 7 June 2010 Last updated at 12:07 GMT By Paul Rincon, Science reporter, BBC News.

This also confirmed by the Japanese Press in the article “Extra-Terrestrial dust found in Hayabusa probe container”, published Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 Kyodo News, The Japan Times.

Nuclear Powered Propulsion Systems as featured in the movie Deep Impact or even propulsion systems based on Nuclear Fusion of Deuterium, as the British Inter-Planetary Society’s had proposed with a theoretical unmanned AI (Artificial Intelligence) piloted ship called Daedelus. Daedelus would be fueled with Deuterium pellets from Jupiter and capable of traveling at speeds of one-tenth the speed of light to reach Barnard’s Star, our closest star, roughly six (6) light years away, in the Space of fifty (50) years.

Will we also see the development of faster than Light Propulsion Systems, essentially the much bandied about “Warp” Drive (Star Trek) or Slip Stream Drive (Andromeda), based on first developing an AMC (Anti-Matter converter)? Development of AI to pilot said ship as in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), hopefully not planning to kill its crew?

Most importantly, as a friend of mine once joked, which Telecom Provider will be getting the contract to set up the Deep Space Relay for Interstellar Communications (please, let it be Apple, please!)? Will it be Telecom Provider CLARO or an American Telecom Provider?

One thing I for sure, a bounty of rich mineral wealth awaits us in the Oort Cloud [asteroid belt] to be mined by lucky prospectors, reminiscent of the anime CowBoy BeeBop or steam punk animated cartoon The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, like the Californian Gold Rush of the mid 1820’s. Only time will tell as we embrace this push to the Final Frontier.