CHINA’S PROPOSED MAGNETIC MOON LAUNCHER
This story was shared courtesy of B., and when I saw it, I immediately thought of Robert Heinlein and his novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. But that aside (for the moment), this article is one of those cases where plans for the weaponization of space are being carefully marketed behind a narrative of commercial development and exploitation. Here's the story:
China could develop rotating launcher on moon to send lunar resources to Earth
China has big plans for the Moon, and for its commercial development, and for how to get all that "stuff up there" from "up there" to "down here":
Chinese scientists propose a magnetic launcher on the moon for cost-effective resource transport to Earth.
The magnetic levitation system, based on the hammer throw principle, would spin faster and launch the capsule toward Earth.
Leveraging the moon’s high vacuum and low gravity, it could eject payloads twice daily at about 10 percent of current transport costs, according to researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering.
What a great, clever idea! Ahh those clever Chinese! Just create a magnetic catapult, with a big rotating arm, and literally throw the cargo toward the Earth. What could be easier or more cost effective? Because with such a system, no more expensive rockets needed. One could use this to throw multiple cargos at Earth;
The researchers explained that the system’s technical readiness is relatively high. Since it only requires electricity and no propellant, it will be compact and simple to implement, they wrote in the journal Aerospace Shanghai.
And it will save energy too, because during the "slow down" process, you can use that big rotating arm to generate more electricity, which will be used to spin it up again, and so on:
The proposed launch system would use a 50-meter (165 ft) rotating arm and a high-temperature superconducting motor to launch capsules filled with lunar resources.
The system will use solar and nuclear energy, with over 70 percent of energy recovered after each launch by converting kinetic energy back to electricity during deceleration.
Oh... and it will be an aid to international peace and amity too!
The team behind the project suggested it could be part of a proposed Russian-Chinese joint effort to establish a research station at the lunar south pole by 2035. The launch station would cost approximately 130 billion yuan (US$18.2 billion) to build.
Well three cheers for the Chinese lunar catapult, international amity and concord, and a coming age of Helium-3 energy!
Except that the idea isn't originally Chinese, and there are obviously "other" potential uses for such a device. This is where the noted science fiction author Robert Heinlein comes in. For those who only "read" science fiction novels if they appear in particularly bad Hollyweird adaptations, Heinlein's name might only be familiar through a bad Hollyweird adaptation of his novel Starship Troopers. Like many science fiction authors, Heinlein explored the cultural impact of emerging technologies and the cultural and policy impacts they had, and Starship Troopers was no different. The Martian Chronicles are no different.
But perhaps the novel which is the fullest exposition of the explorations of the various themes of political commentary and the uses of emerging technology is an overlooked novel, and in many ways, his masterpiece The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. In the novel, Heinlein considers a number of themes at length: how to organize conspiracies (and what is wrong with the classical cellular versions of conspiracies: they're usually "two dimensional" and thus lacking in lateral means of communication between cells.) The novel also considers what we may call the "Elon Musk" scenario of a computer so large and powerful that it "wakes up" and becomes self-aware and intelligent. Heinlein's computer is called "Mike", and is located on the Moon. Mike becomes a member of a cell of lunar rebels revolting against the tyrannical rule of Earth. Somewhere along the way of this plot progression, someone proposes using the Moon's catapult system - which is used to launch cargo toward the mother planet - to launch large boulders instead. In affect, the lunar system becomes a novelized version of another popular technological classic: the "mass driver", a weapon which literally works simply by lobbing or hurling a large inert mass at a target in space, destroying or damaging the target by sheer kinetic energy. So-called "Rods of God" or "Rods of the Gods" kinetic weapons are another variation on this idea. In the novel, Mike, being a self-aware super-computer, naturally does all the calculations and fire control for using the lunar catapult as a weapon, and the bombardment of Earth commences.
The novel even points out that, in terms of the Earth-Moon planetary system, the Earth lies at the bottom of the gravity well, and the Moon occupies the all-important and advantageous "high ground". Bombarding the earth is simply a matter of running the right calculations, choosing an adequate mass. and propelling it at the right velocity before releasing it, and gravity and kinetic energy does the rest. Force equals mass times acceleration. It's as simple as that and has been known since Newton. And the records of such bombardments are found all over the surface of this planet. Meteor crater in Arizona is a case in point:
Meteor Crater outside Winslow, Arizona
And this of course brings us back to the Chinese lunar catapult plans, because just as in Heinlein's novel, the same - the exact same - technology is both a weapon and can be used for other more peaceful purposes. One must not - and this is quite the crucial point, and applicable across a wide spectrum of similar technologies - one must not envision this as a technology of peaceful purposes which can also be used under certain circumstances as a weapon, but the converse: it is a weapon which can under certain circumstances be used for peaceful purposes. Before we greet the Chinese proposal with congratulations and kuddos for such a breathtaking idea and one benefitting international amity and concord, this fact should be born in mind, and Heinlein's warnings be heeded.
See you on the flip side...
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It would seem that that Party of the east by going west has once again got hold of a secretive database not originally theirs as well as have been entertaining the minds of their newly schooled in higher education. And now, the disguise, the fig leaf of let’s-make-nice-and-exploit-Luna and “propose a magnetic launcher on the moon for cost-effective resource transport to Earth.” No doubt expecting the gullible to donate their gold reserves, claims to sovereign territory on Terra, and be managed by the same Party of the east by going west within the marathon they’re currently engaged. . . Pigs may fly too if only to be hurtled by catapult if not given wings through genetic coding.
The [Others] may indeed have a plan for us upright simian types. At least the Party of the east by going west, like the Russ, are paying attention to off world considerations if not flights of the imagination by these same upright simians.
In Heinlein’s novel, the Loonies also realized they shouldn’t be slinging their valuable resources down to Earth but rather hold on to them (wheat, in the novel).
Like Michael UK above speculated, what if someone’s there already? That someone might disagree with the Chinese about snatching whatever it is they’re after.
Funny coincidence: just bought this book a few days ago for one euro. I’m halfway through, so special thanks to Doc for no spoilers!
Go back to the movie “This Island Earth’ where comets are used to destroy a planet. It came out in the mid-fifties of the last century, and the idea of comets as dirty snowballs should have died when Shoemaker-Leavy-nine struck Jupiter in the mid-nineties of the last century.
I’m very successful, in calling out the royal Jewry in Scandinavia, because I’m a vulgar person, who knows, when to take a leak, when the wind is in the right direction – and there is no defence against raw humour.
Americans are one-dimensional, in comparison, to the sophisticated slapstick of understated vulgarity, that European heathenry represent, being totally disrespectful towards everything, that comes out of the Vatican.
Heathens have, since long ago, figured out, that royal Jewry and Catholicism are super-glued together, and, therefore, there is no tolerance towards either of them, and both can barbecue in the same hell. Good riddance!
Slingshotted, off the Buddha wheel, Chinese humour is like heathen humour, located outside the eschatological hysteria of the Vatican brimstone and snake oil.
A second letter from Harry Potter:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/mmhjv2ve99whl1jg50vd9/second-letter-from-harry-potter.pdf?rlkey=aohbta0c0l6i9nq0l8urgf709
BTW, according to Scott Ritter, “the Ukraine is owned by America, that is owned by AIPAC”, and, when Ritter stated recently, that “Jews claim the right, to rape non-Jews”, then he was immediately raided by the FBI.
Likewise, in Scandinavia, the descendants of Vikings are owned, by royal Jewry, whose three intermarried royal dynasties control all of Scandinavia, through Freemasonry, that is historically created by the Vatican Jesuits.
By default, Scythian Odin is the most antisemitic position in the world, because he led the resistance, against the Assyrian empire, and the marauding carpetbaggers, who today are known as Jewry, which is a stolen identity.
Neither Buddhist China, nor Scythian Odin, are influenced by Vatican mind control, because going off karma wheel, is popping the 7th seal.
The seven seals as martial art:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/pih0162nwhdrpd1/blue-banshee.jpg
“Peaceful uses” sure then there is the “military use” like in Babylon 5 where the Centauri use mass drivers to hurl asteroids at the Narn homeworld devastating the planet.
That is one of the most gripping and haunting scenes in the whole series.
In some of my novels; the villains have electromagnetic guns.
Those are some heavy-duty, super-fast bullets.
Think of an electromagnetic China-large gun – and your going to the Moon.
[To the blog]
Again thinking of a recent Moon trilogy I read: The Eight Continent; Moon 2.0/A Hard Science Fiction Thriller; and Lunar Supremacy/A Hard Science Fiction Thriller.
Basically it was about the real slave-like labor conditions on the Moon, and using it aa a base to launce Large Heavy Moon Rocks at Earth[using your basic hammer throw engineering principles]. The base was located at the military ideal location – the south pole.
They used this to blackmail Earth governments – adopt certain policies.
Or, to expect lots asteroids coming your way.
So, it’s basically an update Moon Harsh Mistress.
And, China/Russia and anyone with any grey c4ells can see.
Of Course, not your Ayatolla Harris types.
They’re dumbed-down, bottomless empty pits.
Perfect empty, light-weight, plastic chess pieces – to be moved in-place – without thought.
terrifying thoughts! you need a bigger mouthpiece, no one else is getting into the depth and quality of JPF
Like myself , Robert Heinlein once worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . During WW2 Heinlein worked as an engineer at Mustin Flying Field. He was a Navy officer before WW2 and could not re-enlist in the Navy due to health issues. I do worry about the Chinese using Heinlein’s idea to hurl items at the earth as it certainly has the potential to be used as lunar artillery in any upcoming war over space mining rights.
Perhaps China and Russia have evidence that there are alien artefacts on the Moon? It could explain their rush to establish a base in the Lunar South Pole region.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2014/07/23/crowdsourcing-the-search-for-alien-artifacts/
Also perhaps the Moon is used as a monitoring and tracking station by another civilization from elsewhere in the Galaxy to keep a watchful eye on the war obsessed simians?
Joseph, I disagree with your use of “Hollyweird” to describe Hollywood. Weird means extraordinary, fantastic, supernatural, very strange and unusual, unexpected, magical.
Please would you use the description “Hollywoke” to describe Hollywood and “The Woke House” to describe The White House.
With thanks!
Good suggestions…. I’ll give them some thought.
Well literally anything can be weponized your own body. thoughts, words it just a matter of how creative you can be.
And the chinese i believe already supposedly did research on the Rod of God concept based on the one you have discused in ealier posts and have found it not to be possible. And i believe any object coming from the moon to do significant damage would have to extremely large. And I would go one step further and say a panetary defense system is already in place your comments on project ripple