Air Force Space Fence Being Shut Down 86
New submitter meglon writes "NASA will lose access to important real-time information on tracking orbital debris if the order of Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, is carried out. The Space Fence, the only monitoring system of its kind, will cease to function on October 1st. 'Deployed in the 1960s, the VHF Space Fence includes three transmitter sites and six receiving stations. It is responsible for approximately 40 percent of all observations performed by the Air Force-run Space Surveillance Network, which includes other ground-and space-based sensor assets, said Brian Weeden, technical adviser at the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space sustainability. ... A full-scale development contract for an updated version of the Space Fence had been expected in 2012 or early 2013, but on July 16, Shelton said the multibillion-dollar project is being held up due to a wide-ranging Pentagon review that includes major acquisition programs. The review is examining scenarios under which the Pentagon’s budget is cut by $150 billion, $250 billion and $500 billion during the next decade.'"
I just had a brilliant idea (Score:0, Insightful)
Just transfer all the money cut from the DOD to NASA. Then they can run it themselves! Genius, yes?
Re:Who wants a space fence (Score:4, Insightful)
Turn it into a space fence to keep out illegal aliens.
Shelton is playing politics (Score:5, Insightful)
The esteemed Gen. Shelton is playing politics. This is a standard trick. Whenever someone threatens or enacts budget cuts, politicians (and you don't get to be a general without being a politician) start shutting down things which may cost very little, but are highly noticeable or annoying. Obviously this demonstrates how catastrophic it would be to have your budget cut.
Re:Shelton is playing politics (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I just had a brilliant idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Having worked for both DOD and NASA, I can tell you with certainty that NASA is even worse of a cluster fuck moneywise than DOD.
Re:I just had a brilliant idea (Score:1, Insightful)
How have the capabilities of NASA ever been used to justify a war?
And to be fair, NASA is a political football. Its mission changes ever couple of years because it never has enough funding to complete what it is told. This might breed a little bit of budgetary nihilism. Fund a big rocket, but then cut funding, fund a nuclear rocket, cut it, fund a space station, cut it, etc. This rarely happens to the DOD, so they can at least plan.
Give the money to NASA. People who aren't going to become refugees will thank you. And it will actually fund science and technology instead of death. Even if NASA were only 1% efficient at using money, it would be better than a 99% efficient DOD doing the same.
Re:Another example of what government is for. (Score:4, Insightful)
people would be incentivized to innovate in the area, and over time we'd advance the state of the art
Innovation in something like this is useless without cooperation (good luck with that) or regulation.
WiFi and similar open spectrum uses have advanced state-of-the-art radio technology substantially faster than all the prior, protected spectrum uses.
WiFi runs on the ISM bands, and they're highly regulated, not some sort of Wild West in the aether that you suggest. The ISM bands have limits on transmit power, dwell time for frequency hopping, spreading for CDMA or OFDMA, etc.
Remember, there is no such thing as "interference" unless the emissions are coherent. Electromagnetic coherence doesn't happen unless you try really, really hard.
Generating a coherent signal in RF or microwave bands is the easiest thing in the world, it's called a sine wave.
So the only rule you truly need is to not be malicious.
Right, who would maliciously interfere with a system that has defense applications.
Worried about an "arms war" on power output? Good! All the more incentive to create more sensitive receivers, or to advance coding theory.
More sensitive receivers are the last thing you need when dealing with interference. As for coding theory, we're already pretty close to Shannon's limit. BTW, the space fence has a 768kW EIRP transmitter. Talk about a serious entry into the "arms war". You also need that kind of power for what they're doing. We're not talking about a WiFi reaching 100 feet.
Do we restrict the number of washer machine detergents that are allowed to be sold commercially, lest "interference" with competitors make the market in detergent too difficult to sustain?
My washing machine doesn't interfere with my neighbor's washing machine. My 10kW transmitter might interfere with his reception.
Re:'cept budgets are GROWING, just not as much (Score:4, Insightful)
Grow up. If we don't budget for inflation, things are going to suck even more when we get halfway through the fiscal year and realize we don't have the money to get make it to the end. This has nothing to with being a Republican or Democrat and everything with actually trying to plan a project and deliver something to the taxpayer. I realize most households don't have to worry about this on a yearly basis, but both government and big business must if they don't want to fail.
Now if you want to discuss whether it's in our long term national interest to print so much money that year-to-year inflationary growth is something we have to monitor in our budget process, fine. Or if you have thoughts on how to responsibly reduce government services without gutting either our social welfare or military programs (or both), please share. We need some good ideas, 'cause those idiots up on the Hill seem stumped. But just because you don't like inflation doesn't mean you can live in a fantasy land where it doesn't exist.
Re:Another example of what government is for. (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember, there is no such thing as "interference" unless the emissions are coherent. Electromagnetic coherence doesn't happen unless you try really, really hard. So the only rule you truly need is to not be malicious.
When you get out of the basement, you should consider taking a signal processing class, kid. What you are suggesting is like saying you don't need to drive in those silly "lanes" on the highway, because evolution will quickly cause new drivers to be born with faster reflexes.