Nov. 8, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
Outer space is internationally accepted as the common heritage of mankind, but it is increasingly getting used for military purposes, cautions a recent report of the IDSA-Indian Pugwash Society Working Group titled Space Security: Need for a proactive approach (www.academicfoundation.com).
"While surveillance by U-2-type spy planes was considered hostile in the 1960s, the far superior capabilities of satellites for military applications have come to be accepted as legitimate use of outer space by most nations today. This transition, however, has not been very smooth," the authors note.
The report sees the likely US deployment of Airborne Laser (ABL) by 2010 as a big leap towards `weaponisation of outer space,' as much as the deployment of the `potential dual-purpose' micro-satellites.
"The ABL does not burn through or disintegrate its target. It heats the missile skin, weakening it, causing failure from high speed flight stress. If proven successful, seven ABL-armed 747s will be built and assigned to two combat theatres," reads a snatch in Wikipedia. At the heart of the system is a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser, on board a Boeing-747 (NYSE:BA) , flying at 13-km altitude. Future R&D in the `Directed Energy Weapons' technology may offer space-based X-Ray lasers for dramatic capabilities in space applications and earth wars, the report postulates.
It reasons that the unique advantage of space weapons in terms of global reach - as different from ICBMs that have hemispheric reach - will make future R&D on space-based lasers very attractive. New technologies such as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems and nanotechnology may make the `Brilliant Pebble' concept of Strategic Defence Initiative very practical and economically tempting, the report adds.
Introduction of tiny satellites may facilitate the use of a large number of nanosatellites programmed to function as a group, almost like flying insects, with potential defence applications, the authors envisage.
"Such satellite clusters functioning together as a swarm could be provided with collective intelligence. These could communicate relevant information and could even be designed to reconfigure themselves, thereby autonomously changing direction in response to sensor inputs to achieve the mission at hand."
Exciting read.
Cyberbullying
While much of the traditional discussion regarding `hate' and victim-perpetrator relationships is about situations where the two parties occupy the same geographical space, the recent phenomenon of `cyberbullying,' which occurs remotely, is becoming a significant form of bias-related harassment, especially for young people, say Neil Chakraborti and Jon Garland in Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses (www.sagepublications.com).
