…AND GUESS WHO ELSE WANTS TO GO TO MARS?
To say that news lately has been a very strange mix of events would be putting it mildly, and in that vein we've seen the strange Antarctica stories, the Turkish invasion of Syria, heated phone calls between Mr. Putin and Mr. Erdogan, and the strange UFO flap over Turkey as the latter were going on.
There's another story that emerged during this period, of a more mundane but not necessarily purely terrestrial nature. Regular readers here are well aware of the stories - first a drip and now a steady trickle - about the privatization and commercialization of space, as there has been a steady flow of stories about asteroid mining and how to do it; about permanent, and large, manned space stations not just in low Earth orbit, but in far Earth orbit at the equigravisphere between the Earth and the Moon; about manned human missions to the Moon and Mars and about the permanent human colonization of the same(see, for example, this recent offering from Popular Science: How The First Private Landing On The Moon Could Move Humanity Forward A conversation with the founder of Moon Express, shared by Mr. R.M.); there have even been stories about the planning being done for government structures for those projects; there have been stories about the major powers beefing up their space war waging capabilities. All of these various stories we have covered and blogged about here.
But guess who else - what other company wants to go to Mars?
Surprise, surprise, it's Lockheed-Martin, according to this story shared once again by Mr. R.M.:
Now, the interesting thing here is the "using existing publicly-known technologies" angle of the story, it's possible to place six astronauts - still just a life-boat by all measures, but a veritable ocean liner compared to the two and three man capsules we were dealing with in the 1960s and 1970s - in orbit around Mars to conduct close-up manned orbital exploration of the Red Planet, and to coordinate from close range remote robotic surface explorations, without those pesky twenty or so minutes communications delays from Mars to Earth and back again:
You won't find any suspended animation pods or magnetic shields on Lockheed's spacecraft. As cool as those might be, Mars Base Camp relies on near-term technologies--equipment that's already been proven or is in development now.
"All of these pieces exist today, they're not brand new," says Antonelli. "We're taking advantage of what we've already got."
Orion provides the brain of the vessel, providing navigation and communications. There's also a backup Orion vehicle to ensure a getaway plan if the crew runs into trouble.
The two Orion capsules would link up with larger habitat and laboratory modules, which Lockheed is already in the process of developing, as well as solar panels to provide power.
The rationale here is self-evident:
Without the delay, and with real-time feedback, scientists can stop to look at features that they might have missed otherwise. Plus, the use of flying robots would allow NASA to explore Mars in a whole new way.
Needless to say, I'm more than somewhat skeptical of this story. It was Richard C. Hoagland and his co-author Mike Bara who, in their best-selling book Dark Mission, pointed out that NASA was chartered under the U.S. Department of Defense. In other words, in spite of its billing as a civilian agency, NASA was firmly placed within the orbit - to coin a pun - of the military-industrial complex of the USA. One can appreciate the reasons: at that time there was concern, enunciated in the Brookings Report on space matters, that we might encounter someone, or their (technological) artifacts out there, and hence, that the whole issue of space faring involved national security in a major way.
The point to draw from this is the close association of NASA with the Defense Department and therewith with the whole military-industrial-finance-intelligence complex. The same pattern we may be assured, holds true in all other nations with major space programs: Europe, Japan, Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Segue from this association to the hearings during the G.W. Bush administration, where Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his assistants were being grilled by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney(D- GA.) not only on the Pentagon's budget procedures, but on the fact that the Pentagon's data processing contracts were almost exclusively in the hands of corporations like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and so on. In other words, the government was not processing its data, defense contractors were.
Move this pattern that Congresswoman McKinney attempted to penetrate into space, and we see the problem: what control over any collected data will the government have when the major systems for the manned exploration of Mars are largely in the hands of private corporation, especially so if the database management itself is in their hands? If the record of NASA Mars missions(or for that matter, even Moon missions) is recalled, there have been numerous controversies over the years of debates over NASA photos of those planets' surfaces, and controversies over whether or not NASA released undoctored pictures or attempted to embargo them altogether. Many of the same defense companies were involved in those missions as is being proposed here. As we see the move toward the privatization and corporatization of space in the matter of asteroid mining and so on, with countries (the USA and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg leading the way) allowing ownership to minerals mined or recovered from celestial bodies, the same would seem to apply to any recovered artifacts from celestial bodies, whether technological or not: these would become proprietary assets, possibly even to the extent that any information revealed about human history in these objects might also become proprietary assets. In other words, one ends with control not only of any potential (technological) artifacts, but of their historical implications, and of the database management behind both.
These thoughts lead me to a rather startling conclusion, and herewith the high octane speculation of the day, for perhaps it is that control of the implicit historical narrative behind such putative discovery of technological artifacts that may be one of the compelling, if not the principal, reasons behind the current "race" of the space powers to get to the Moon and Mars.
See you on the flip side...
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“Your comment is awaiting moderation.” Hmmm, someone didn’t like that…
goshawks – December 5, 2016 at 10:36 pm.
JPF: “…control of the ‘implicit historical narrative’ behind such putative discovery of technological artifacts that may be one of the compelling, if not the principal, reasons behind the current “race” of the space powers to get to the Moon and Mars.”
Good for you! The PTB need to be able to ship-away any pesky ‘verbotten’ material before it gets into public hands, akin to shipping-away-for-smelting the steel structural members of the Twin Towers. Private corporations can do this in a way that circumvents any public process…
—
The Lockheed-Martin Mars story is just corporate propaganda and questing for public funding. Their 4-6 person capsule has soaked-up billions of dollars, basically for a tin can! (I am assuming that much of that money was siphoned-away for black-budget items.) Meanwhile, much-more-nimble competitors like SpaceX and Blue Origin are actually fulfilling a space vision. Hence, there is a much-too-late realization by Lockheed-Martin (and such) that their ‘reason for existence’ has passed onto other hands… (yay!)
And Guess Whose Else Wants To Privatize?
[as a catch-all solution to every problem]
Trump advisors propose Tribes Privatize reservations.
[Holy Reservations Batman!]
left shoe, right shoe? what’s the dif?
They all dance to the same corporate conglomerate body.
if/IF any of these phone calls actually occur between puppit world leaders, who are their translators (well, who payrolls them?- they aren’t working gratis- members of their own nation?) and are they translating correctly?- has anyone not yet considered this aspect?
Larry in Germany
There is a creepy photo on the internet of “Col.” Edward Mandell House, leaning over the shoulder of President Woodrow Wilson. House was publicized as Wilson’s close advisor, but – if you looked at the ‘body language’ – you could tell who was in charge. House would have been the ‘translator’, and this is probably the ‘arrangement’ today… (Read my below-comment on B5 for implications.)
I’m waiting for them to show us a conventional “ROCKET” ship that will be going to Mars, what a joke.
There is a great interview with 3 of the “heavyweights” on life on Mars at Earth Ancients radio. They are Dr. John Brandenberg, George J Hass and Dr. Mark Carlotto, and they take NASA apart piece by piece.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/earthancients/2016/12/03/special-edition-of-earth-ancients-the-ruins-of-mars
This is a must listen considering the topic of Mars is so heavy right now.
Why would someone drop 2 humongous unclear bomb on Mars to wipe out a primitive civilization, that doesn’t make any sense to me.
Eve Leung, the question is whether the civilization was primitive. The Sumerian cunneiform tablets speak of a secondary-arrival of the Anunnaki on Earth called the Igigi. They arrived from a place that had become ‘uninhabitable’. Some authors peg that as Mars. If you were part of an interstellar war, any of your bases would be fair game. If it was a big or heavily-defended base, that would probably mean big nukes or an equivalent…
For that matter, several archeologists and alternative-history authors have remarked that Puma Punku (part of the Tiwanaku Site near Tiwanaku, Bolivia) bears hallmarks of being blown to smithereens rather than dismantled by time…
Eve Leung, I had not yet heard the interview and was responding based on prior reading. Apologies. Your question is justified, based on Brandenberg’s comments at 2:00 in the show. He estimates that the huge ‘nuclear’ airbursts were around half a Billion to a quarter Billion years ago, using radioactive decay rates. That is much too early for any conceivable Anunnaki base on Mars.
Have you read the “Berserker” SF series by Fred Saberhagen? In this series, two ancient races fought to the end. One race finally produced fearsome interstellar weaponry – massive spheres looking like the Imperial Deathstar – with the imperative to end all ‘non-them’ life they could find. Both races died out, leaving only the Berserker machines. When one of these machines came upon a planet with ANY life, it snuffed it out…
Star Trek TOS had a episode that dealt with the Berserker scenario and Star Trek Voyager had a variant where the machines killed their creators and continued the war.
Goshawks is correct. Brandenburg’s suggestion is based on a conservative estimate–though some anomalous data from photographs seem to imply a civilization having at a minimum 19th century technological signatures. I prefer the approach, and yet I am also aware that anomalous data from an occasional photograph interpreted from a 21st century western point of view can be somewhat biased. Our culture prefers very complex, multi-tasking machines. (Think computers and such.) From ancient texts I get the idea they preferred simple, dual or triple use machines. They were simple to manufacture, simple to operate, required minimal investment in resources and provided limited material advantage to an inferior species when lost or given as token gifts. It’s easy to think of that culture as less sophisticated if their machines are simple. The ancient texts say otherwise, and we need to be more mindful of design considerations when evaluating them.
Thanks for the link DownunderET maybe all that would survive from that attack would be just primitive sounds the scenario from Rocket Ship XM from the 1950’s.
Unfortunately I never read the novel it titled “Spacevikings” I think that novel would give us a good idea. What our oligarchs would do in the galaxy pillage and rapine that’s what the Western supertribes have done since the age of exploration from the fifteenth century to today. In the West since the fall of the Roman Empire if not before governments have been the fronts for the corporations and organized-semi-organized crime syndicates. Read up on history does repeat it self don’t believe the academics who say it doesn’t.
Private = Owned = No Public Accountability
Public accountable only to develop the huge technology costs until viable profits can be exploited; and the public pays again.
Privatize the profit$
Socialize the cost$
These corporations should be nationalised … but, oh no, that would be something SOCIALIST to take away our (???) freedoms.
Exactly Dana.
For example, the Banks should be nationalized into a public utility; subject to regulation by a peoples’ government. Healthcare, the Power/Gas companies, Education, Transportation. That way businesses could concentrate on the business of business; instead of absorbing costs that add to the product; where other nations pay these costs. More ever, the GDP needs to be completely reconfigured to purpose – whether business, govts, or civil society – to provide all people with opportunity to make a healthy, meaningful living in a balanced co-productive relationship with Earth’s community of life.
Environmental sustainability, economic justice, & a living democracy are inseparable. WE have ALL of them, or we have none of them.
Robert, I think that I am going to use you as a write-in candidate in the next election… (if any)
Be careful Robert, Your making to much sense. db
When Private Power exceeds public power
you have FASCISM, plain & simple.
Star Trek in the future of space will represent…. ?
Earth and the material universe of human experience are more than the spirits creation, they are its manifestation. This spirit is the world, and the world is in the spirit. This is, after all, a living universe where we boldly go.
We carry that sprit;
not a fascist flag to exploit it for profits.
We might look at our home/Earth and heed its warning. We humans are behaving as rogue cells in the body of living Earth and have activated Earth’s defenses.
Now we are moving into our living universe. I doubt our current leadership’s modus operandi will be treated any differently, unless we align with the wisdom and intension of the spirit that manifests through us. In the most mature expression of our human consciousness, we develop a capacity to recognize and honor simultaneously both our oneness and our individuality.
It helps us achieve spiritual understanding.
Would corporations hide data from their clients related to space artifacts under the umbrella of corporate proprietorship? You bet your bottom dollar they would. This is especially true for corporations like Lockheed Martin—a corporation whose sole capital is technology related to electronics, travel and information management. One needs to pay very particular attention to the latter term—because information management is far more than data collection, storage and reporting. Let me explain my thought by example.
To me the ironic part of a television series like Babylon V is its ability to explore a milieu of ideas prevalent at the time and synthesize a show whose reality’s essential outline mirrors our own. There were several episodes in that series where corporations controlled the archaeological teams who would explore and harvest its artifacts and technologies for study. Several shows were dedicated to the idea that many artifacts were withheld from public study due to their technological sophistication and significance, whereas mundane objects were sold at a premium price to provide funding for further exploration activities. Even Captain Sheridan’s wife was part of an expeditionary team of this corporation for the exploration of Za’ha’dum—a team that was lost when it stumbled on a dead world (or so they were told by the corporate heads), but one teaming with life that had just awakened with ambitions to control the galaxy once again. This corporation was the primary interface between the Earth government and the Shadows. This corporation not only facilitated a treaty of mutual cooperation between the two governments, but managed technological transfer between them—which included the transfer of telepaths from earth to the Shadows for weapons components within their ships. Babylon V analysis aside, this paradigm has deep historical roots. During the age of exploration governments responded by direct involvement in the exploration game to prevent the loss of leverage during the bargaining process as new materials and technologies were discovered. This brings me back to Dr. Farrell’s blog here today.
This blog doesn’t surprise me in the least. If memory serves many discussions with Georgeanne Hughes at the ByteShow explored the corporate meme for covert “corporate” exploration of the “new world” many times. Yet, in the context of these conversations, the national responses to historical references always hovered in the background. Though such references were never discussed in any detail, they were part of the historical record. Disclosure usually occurred at a convenient time as corporations were able to “divine” governmental moods and plan adequately for them. Corporations wanted from governments consistent and binding rules ownership and engagement, manpower, protection and funding for foreign missions to minimize their risks and maximize their profits. Having said that I have long suspected there is more to the “disclosure” meme than what people suspected. If history is a guide “disclosure” will be simultaneous with a total paradigm shift in our thinking as governments and corporations carving out their domains of control within the process. One visible sign for the arrival of this moment in the public sector would be precisely this type of “corporate” statement from banking consortiums and military industrial complexes. How long this process will take is anyone’s guess, but this could be one of the first public statements by Lockheed Martin that a new phase of information ownership, transfer, exploration, funding and profit sharing is beginning.
OK. As usual there are a few grammatical errors, and for that I do apologize. One occasionally has to multitask as one gets navigates the waters of modern life–and this causes a few now and again. Please forgive the occasional grammatical blunder.
OrigensChild, thanks for the B5 revue. It is soooo curious that B5 is one of the few TV series never allowed into syndication (that I know of). B5 blew the lid off of many dark corners. The abduction and shipping-off of telepaths was one. Telepaths being more important than ordinary weapons was another. Telepaths being part of off-world society was also verbotten.
What probably got them ultra-canned was the suggestion that top political figures had ‘handlers’ that could take them over (literally) and cause them to act in Shadow interests. Now, why does that sound familiar?
B5 saw limited syndication during the middle and late nineties on the Fox channel for a brief period. I rarely watch TV, and when I do, I DVR the few programs I want to watch and skip the commercials. I do not remember it being on the schedule of the SciFi channel. Then again, it wasn’t until a decade ago where cable television carried this channel in the markets where I lived. I own the DVD set and watch it periodically because it touches so many themes presented here at this site. It was a remarkable series.
re: “corporate” exploration of the “new world”
Read the charter granted by Charles II to William Penn for the territory that became Pennsylvania:
excerpted:
3-4-1681
[Section II] Wee Doe alsoe give and grant vnto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, the free and vndisturbed vse, and continuance in and passage into and out of all and singular Ports, harbours, Bayes, waters, rivers, Isles and Inletts, belonging vnto or leading to and from the Countrey, or Islands aforesaid; and all the soyle, lands, fields, woods, vnderwoods, mountains, hills, fenns, Isles, Lakes, Rivers, waters, rivulets, Bays and Inletts, scituate or being within or belonging vnto the Limitts and Bounds aforesaid together with the fishing of all sortes of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all Royall and other fishes in the sea, bayes, Inletts, waters or Rivers, within the premises, and the fish therein taken, and alsoe all veines, mines and quarries, as well discovered as not discovered, of Gold, Silver, Gemms and pretious Stones, and all other whatsoever, stones, metals, or of any other thing or matter whatsoever, found or to bee found within the Countrey, Isles, or Limitts aforesaid;
[Section III] and him the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, Wee Doe, by this our Royall Charter, for vs, our heires and successors, make, create and constitute the true and absolute proprietaries of the Countrey aforesaid, and of all other, the premises, saving always to vs, our heires and successors, the faith and allegiance of the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, and of all other, the proprietaries tenants and Inhabitants that are, or shall be within the Territories and precincts aforesaid; and saving alsoe vnto vs, our heires and Succesors, the Sovreignity of the aforesaid Countrey, To Have, hold and possesse and enjoy the said tract of Land, Countrey, Isles, Inletts and other the premises, vnto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, to the only proper vse and behoofe of the said William Penn, his heirs and assignes forever. To bee holden of vs, our heires and Successors, Kings of England, as of our Castle of Windsor, in our County of Berks, in free and common socage by fealty only for all services and not in Capite or by Knights service, Yeelding and paying therefore to us, our heires and Successors, two Beaver Skins to bee delivered att our said Castle of Windsor, on the first day of January, in every yeare; and also the fifth parte of all Gold and silver Oare, which shall from time to time happen to bee found within the Limitts aforesaid, cleare of all charges, and of our further grace certaine knowledge and mere mocon, wee have thought fit to Erect, and wee doe hereby Erect the aforesaid Countrey and Islands, into a province and Seiginiorie, and doe call itt Pensilvania, and soe from henceforth wee will have itt called,
[Section IV] and forsasmuch as wee have hereby made, and ordeyned the aforesaid William Penn, his heires and assignes, the true and absolute Proprietaries of all the Lands and Dominions aforesaid. Know Yee therefore, that wee reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelities, wisedome, justice and provident circumspeccon of the said William Penn, for vs, our heires and successors, Doe grant free, full and absolute power, by vertue of these presents to him and his heirs, and to his and their Deputies, and Lieutenants, for the good and happy government of the said Countrey, to ordeyne, make, enact and vnder his and their Seales to publish any Lawes whatsoever, for the raising of money for the publick vse of the said province, or for any other end apperteyning either vnto the publick state peace, or safety of the said Countrey, or vnto the private vtility of particular persons, according vnto their best discretions, by and with the advice, assent and approbacon of the freemen of the said Countrey, or the greater parte of them, or of their Delegates or Deputies, whom for the Enacting of the said Lawes, when, and as often as need shall require. Wee Will, that the said William Penn, and his heires shall assemble in such sort and forme as to him and them shall seeme best, and the same lawes duely to execute vnto, and upon all people within the said Countrey and limits thereof;
[Section V] and Wee doe likewise give and grant unto the said William Penn, and his heiress and to his and their Deputies and Lieutenants, such power and authorities to appoint and establish any Judges, and Justices, magistrates and officers whatsoever, for what causes soever, for the probates of wills and for the granting of administracons within the precincts aforesaid, and with what power soever, and in such frome as to the said William Penn, or his heiress shall seeme most convenient. Alsoe to remitt, release, pardon and abolish, whether before Judgement or after, all crimes and offences, whatsoever committed within the said Countrey, against the said Lawes, treason and willful and malitious murder onely excepted; and in these cases, to grant reprieves until our pleasure may bee knowne therein, and to doe all and every other thing and things which vnto the compleate establishment of Justice vnto Courts and Tribunalls, formes of Judicature and manner of proceedings doe belong, altho’ in these presents expresse mencon bee not made thereof; and by Judges by them delegated to award processes hold pleas and determine in all the said Courts and Tribunalls, all accons, suits and causes whatsoever, as well crminall as civill, personal, reall and mixt, which Lawes soe as aforesaid, to bee published, Our pleasure is, and soe Wee enjoyne require and command shall bee most absolute and avaylable in law, and that all the Liege people and Subjects of vs, our heires and successors, doe observe and keepe the same inviolable in those partes, soe farr as they concerne them, vnder the paine therein expressed, or to bee expressed. Provided; Nevertheles, that the said Lawes bee consonant to reason, and bee not repugnant or contrarie, but as neere as conveniently may bee agreeable to the Lawes, statutes and rights of this our Kingdome of England, and saveing and reserving to vs, our heires and successors, the receiving, heareing and determining of the appeale and appeales, of all or any person or persons, of, in or beloning to the territories aforesaid, or touching any Judgement to bee there made or given.
etc., etc., etc.
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/pennsylvania-charter.html
Unless Trump can put the brakes on this spreading cultural marxist infection, we can be pretty certain what the returning historical narrative is going to be: the white man screwed up Mars as well. (Being another person of color in the Whitehouse, I won’t hold my breath for President Trump to halt the persecution of caucasian men. More than likely his energy will go to carving out a new special status for his minority orange race). I’m sure every space vessel will be equipped with a political officer, freshly minted from an American university, who will be in charge of not only the public historical narrative, but maintaining “equality” on the ship as well. Because of his innate aggressive, domineering and predatory ways, I doubt a straight white man will even be allowed on the ship. They are a well established impediment to social cohesion. And that is the kicker, without a straight while man on board operating the ship , the craft will never make it out of the stratosphere. (Unless minority contractors are used for constructing the ship, then it never even makes it off the launch pad). Boy, won’t the Russians have a great laugh. They will be high-fiving each other in the Kremlin and at the Roscosmos headquarters. How to take out your rival out in one easy step.
I can’t even imagine what a space crew would even look like in 12 years with the whole country made up of mostly transgenders, autistics and obese diabetics. Odds would seem very low that a space orbiter or a Mars colony would have sustainability with this motley crew. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe our physiology engineering elites have determined this is exactly the humans needed for a sustainable off planet colony.
Yes, those human lab rats in orbit would definitely be genetically selected and/or modified. With top priority in beleiving that “The Corporation is my lord and god”.
Dr Farrel.. I am absolutely speechless.. My gast is flabbered beyond the extreme that you’d think for an instant that any data that will be collected by a private company (especially one that depends … it just requires that we kill each other so they can make money… (Captain Crabs!!) on death and destruction to keep its profit margins up in the stratosphere) will be available for scrutiny and unbiased consideration by a plethora of multi disciplinary experts whom have the singuler aim of the univeral advancement of the human race towards peace and universal understanding..