Saving Suborbital: Will Congress Kill NASA’s Reusable Space Program?
As a follow up. I mentioned metamaterials in my last post. While these can bend light and offer cloaking eventually, they also serve to defend against lasers: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/navy-works-to-laser-proof-its-drones/
In an effort to experiment against ground based lasers which a few adversaries have, the sub-orbital provides a good research platform. In short, various military programs (kinetics, cloaking, deflecting energy beams, global strike delivery, quick recon delivery, re-entry technology can all be advanced for far less money than this administration has supplied various pet projects.
There is a limit to open source speculation about these matters but to mention just one aspect of research, plasma injectors located along wing surfaces on some advanced jets create the lift differential to control pitch and yaw of aircraft. These injectors eliminate the need for some mechanical flight controls and lighten the load. Could these same micro plasma injectors also provide air craft shielding against lasers if properly deployed? To test the convergence of these emerging advanced technologies is perhaps one of the most important things we can do now, to insure our advantage into the future……
