Conference 7.286::space

	You'd probably get more response on such a subject if you posted
the note in SOAPBOX.

hello their on the other end of the sea

I (from holland and working at the DDC in Valbonne) was reading this note
and couldnt believe it is it treu that P. Reagen wants to spend that
much money on the project. Pls put some more info in this file about
it then i'am very interested.

	regards arno

From: [email protected] ([email protected]:[email protected],
        Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: APS bulletin: Falsifying SDI, OTA report, int'l cooperation
Date: 24 Oct 87 01:44:00 GMT
 
    Every Friday, Robert Park, of the American Physical Society's
Washington office, posts a brief notice covering happenings in Big
Science and Government that week.  All three items in the 23 October
bulletin are of relevance to this group, so I thought I'd post the
whole thing just this once.  Park may not be perfectly objective (-:,
but he is juicy... 
 
                                       Bill Higgins
                                       Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
                                       [email protected]
                                       SPAN/HEPnet: 43011::HIGGINS
========================================================================
Posted: Fri  Oct 23, 1987   3:31 PM EDT              Msg: JGIH-2757-7799
From:   RPARK
To:     WHATSNEW
 
WHAT'S NEW, Friday, 23 October 1987                Washington, DC
 
1. TELLER AND WOOD ARE ACCUSED OF FALSIFYING X-RAY LASER DATA by Roy
Woodruff, the former Director of Weapons Development at Lawrence
Livermore.  Woodruff is in Washington today at the summoning of Rep.
George Brown (D-CA) to discuss the charges with Congressional leaders.
Rumors that tests of the x-ray laser concept have been at best
inconclusive have been circulating for a long time.  In an April
letter to the president of the University of California, Woodruff
complained that Roger Batzel, the laboratory director, had refused to
allow him to correct falsely optimistic research reports that Teller
and Wood communicated directly to President Reagan and other top
policy makers.  As a result, Woodruff felt compelled to step down from
his position.  Wood and Teller have been uncharacteristically shy
since Woodruff's grievance became public this week.  However, in
Congressional testimony just last month (WN 18 Sep 87), Lowell Wood
angrily accused the APS report on directed energy weapons of being
overly pessimistic about the prospects for x-ray lasers. 
 
2. MORE BAD NEWS FOR SDI is contained in a recent study by the
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment.  "SDI: Technology,
Survivability and Software," was delivered to members of the
Appropriations and Armed Services Committees of Congress on August 31
-- in classified form.  Inevitably, however, the OTA report has begun
to spring leaks.  An Administration source, who has seen the OTA
study, describes it as "devastating," and says it reinforces the APS
report.  It is not clear when, if ever, the rest of us will be allowed
to see it. 
 
3. THE FOUNDERING US SPACE SCIENCE PROGRAM has been told to stay out
of the only lifeboat.  The Soviet Union, anxious to display its
technical achievements and new scientific freedom, has invited several
US researchers to put experiments on Soviet launches.  With US launch
capacity at zero and a long queue of high-priority military launches
extending as far as the eye can see, American space scientists view
this as the only way to avoid the loss of a generation of new
researchers.  But, it has only worked once.  "Space components" fall
under the provisions of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations
(ITAR), administered by the State Department.  John Simpson, an
astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, convinced the State
Department to grant him a licence to fly a dust experiment on the
Soviet Halley's Comet probe.  He was so elated by the outcome of this
venture into east-west cooperation that he called a press conference.
Bad mistake!  Richard Perle, the Pentagon's resident xenophobe (now a
novelist), promptly demanded that NASA terminate its contracts with
Chicago.  A NASA Advisory Council Task Force on International Space
Relations, however, in a report that has not yet been released, found
that the Pentagon's perception that there have been serious losses of
US technology through cooperative space programs is simply not based
on reality. 
 
Robert L. Park  (202) 232-0189      The American Physical Society

From: [email protected] (ERCF08 Bob Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: APS bulletin: Falsifying SDI, OTA report, int'l cooperation
Date: 27 Oct 87 13:19:36 GMT
Organization: I.T. School, Univ. of Edinburgh, U.K.

    In article <[email protected]>
[email protected] ([email protected]:[email protected], 
Beam Jockey) writes: 

>3.      THE FOUNDERING US SPACE SCIENCE PROGRAM has been told to
>stay out of the only lifeboat.  The Soviet Union, anxious to
>display its technical achievements and new scientific freedom,
>has invited several US researchers to put experiments on Soviet
>launches.
 
>....  John Simpson, an astrophysicist at the
>University of Chicago, convinced the State Department to grant
>him a licence to fly a dust experiment on the Soviet Halley's
>Comet VEGA probes.
 
>.....  A NASA Advisory Council Task Force on
>International Space Relations, however, in a report that has not
>yet been released, found that the Pentagon's perception that
>there have been serious losses of US technology through
>cooperative space programs is simply not based on reality.
 
    In the version of this story I heard, the Soviet scientists
installing the experiment on the Soviet VEGA probes were quite
surprised at how primitive the microprocessors and other electrical
systems were.  Their own experiments on board used parts which were
eight years more up-to-date (and a year is a LONG time in the
microelectronics industry). 

	Bob.

re Note 32.4 by DICKNS::KLAES:

>     In the version of this story I heard, the Soviet scientists
> installing the experiment on the Soviet VEGA probes were quite
> surprised at how primitive the microprocessors and other electrical
> systems were.  

I had often heard that our "space rated" components WERE behind the
state-of-the-art of commercial electronics (including computers).  But their
reliability characteristics were better or at least better understood.

Bob

VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                           [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                           [Nashua, NH, USA               ]

       Pentagon (TRW) Tests Powerful Laser as Antimissile Weapon

    A powerful laser flashed to life in the first major antimissile
    weapons test of the Bush Administration, Pentagon officials said
    yesterday. The laser's beam of concentrated light is to produce
    2.2 million watts of energy, making it the nation's most powerful
    military laser, experts outside the government said. DoD officials, 
    who hailed the test as an important step, would not disclose the 
    power of the beam.

    The secretive, high-power test of the $250 million laser, known as
    "Alpha," was conducted early Friday in a secluded valley near San
    Juan Capistrano, Calif., at a plant of TRW, Inc., which built the
    laser. The test, the first in which the laser produced a powerful
    beam had been delayed for more than two weeks by minor technical
    problems. The laser produced a burst of power for one-fifth of a
    second and was designed to operate for several seconds. If deployed 
    in space, such a laser would have to fire for minutes to destroy 
    a series of enemy missiles in flight.

      Test Called 'a Major Advance'

    "We have achieved a major advance in the laser's development,"
    said Neil Griff, head of space-based lasers for the Pentagon's
    SDIO, adding that it would greatly increase "our confidence in
    being able to build directed energy weapons."

    The laser, scheduled to be launched into space in 1994 as part of
    a $1.5 billion experiment, is one of the most disputed parts of the
    Pentagon's antimissile program, with experts clashing over whether
    its operation in space would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile 
    Treaty. At issue is whether the laser could operate as a space weapon.

    {The New York Times National Ed., Tuesday, April 11, 1989 pg. A8} 
    {Summary of article Contributed by Chuck Coope}

  <><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 1806    Thursday 27-Apr-1989   <><><><><><><>

    I saw a short clip on TV of some sort of SDI device which was
    supposedly for guiding a weapon to contact with another spacebound
    object.  They were doing a 20 second test of the thing in a room.
    
    It was hovering over a net and staying relatively stable by virtue of
    the reaction jets that it was firing.  Couldn't really tell the scale,
    but at a guess it was a cylinder about 4 feet long and 1 foot in
    diameter.  Noisy as hell and very eerie to see it hanging there.  In
    the background you could hear the engineers yelling and cheering it on
    during the test.  They were obviously ecstatic about the whole thing. 
    At the end of the test the engines abruptly stopped firing and the
    apparently inert object dropped into the net.
    
John

This is just like any funded program.

Threaten them with budget cuts and they come up with "successes".

I bet this last "test" and the laser "test of just a few days ago, were 
things they knew (and the russians knew) they could do 2 years ago.

Tony

    The test was of the Space Based Interceptor, which would be launched
    against ICBMs from orbiting "garages".  What you didn't see in the
    tape was a rocket engine firing outside the hanger, which the sensor
    on the SBI was tracking.  The point of the test was to determine
    if the fully integrated SBI could track a rocket plume and maneuver
    while doing so.

...and as I heard on NPR this morning, the tests have to be held INDOORS
so they won't violate the ABM treaty......

VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                           [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                           [Littleton, MA, USA            ]

                                SDI R&D

    US research and development aimed at proving the feasibility of
    space based defenses against ballistic missiles has become a major
    source of new technology.

    Diamond thin films:  Investing more than $20 million so far SDIO has
    been a major sponsor of US research into producing synthetic diamonds 
    by chemical vapor deposition.

    Parallel processing:  An image processing computer that weighed 45 lb
    and could perform 1,250 million instructions per sec was made in
    1987.  By last year, the work had led to a processor capable of 2,562
    mips and weighing only 1.2 lb.

    Flight computer:  A Brilliant Pebbles test computer produced in 1989
    weighed 3 lb and could perform at one-third the instruction rate of
    a Cray 1.

    Focal planes:  Work on mercury cadmium telluride detectors has helped
    drastically lower the per pixel cost of focal plane arrays.

    Thrusters:  A 11.3 lb lateral thruster developed for the high
    endoatmospheric defense interceptor produces as much thrust as a 216 lb
    Delta second stage engine, yielding a 930:1 thrust to weight ratio.

    {AW&ST April 8, 1991}

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
        Please send subscription and backissue requests to CASEE::VNS

    Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
    provided that the message header for the issue and credit lines for the
    VNS correspondent and original source are retained in the copy.

<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2337   Wednesday  5-Jun-1991   <><><><><><><><>

    Dozens of research groups are working on diamond thin films, and
    some firms even have them in production, e.g. a tweeter
    loudspeaker from Japan, and a diamond-coated heat sink.  It's
    nice that SDIO is funding this, but not necessary.  
    
    Likewise, there are lots of parallel processor projects going on. 
    I worked on the DEC version, the DEC-MPP, now cancelled.  Again,
    it's nice that SDIO is working on this, but the key problem with
    it is how to get general-purpose software to run on it.  SDIO
    doesn't care about that since all they want are particular
    signal-processing algorithms.   They care about weight and volume,
    which are secondary concerns to everyone else.
    
    /jlr

Article: 42372
From: [email protected] (Nick Szabo)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.military
Subject: SDI update
Date: 31 Mar 92 04:47:58 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (william.a.thacker)
Organization: TECHbooks of Beaverton Oregon - Public Access Unix
 
From [email protected] (Nick Szabo)
 
[mod.note:  Followups are directed to sci.military; if inappropriate
there, please edit the Newsgroups: line. - Bill ] 
 
The Bush Administration is requesting a record level of funding for
SDI, $5.4 billion.  Emphasis is shifting from new technology
development to the 1996 deployment of part of G-PALS (Global
Protection Against Limited Strike).  For example, the Timberwind
nuclear-thermal rocket project has been transferred to the U.S. Air
Force, and SDIO plans on purchasing Russian Topaz nuclear reactors
instead of developing SP-100.  SDIO will continue a lower-key R&D
effort, including the Delta Clipper single-stage to orbit (SSTO)
project, and working with Russia on technologies such as neutral
particle beams (which the Russians have tested in space). 
 
The 1996 G-PALS deployment is to consist of:
 
* theatre defense ABMs (Thaad)
* U.S.-based ABMs
 
In 1997, Brilliant Eyes system is to be added.  This is a network of
50 small launch detection and tracking satellites in low Earth orbit,
to complement the current generation, DSP, which are larger satellites
that sit in GEO.  DSP played a critical role in detecting Scud
launches during the Gulf War, alerting Patriot crews in time to
destroy the missiles.  Work has slowed on the competing pop-up
detectors concept.  Pop-up detectors would only be launched after DSP
has already detected a launch.  Pop-up may be cancelled or at least
not deployed before 2000. 
 
In order to speed up the 1996-7 deployment, the decision on Brilliant
Pebbles, a fleet of 1,000 (count them one thousand) low-earth orbiting
kinetic kill vehicles, has been delayed to 2000.   Brilliant Pebbles
can knock down any missile that exceeds 80 km altitude for more than 3
minutes.  That translates to missiles with 500 km range at minimum
energy trajectory, or 700-800 km range for depressed trajectories.
This covers all ICBMs and most IRBMs in the world's inventories.  The
BP constellation can shoot down a 20-missile volley of Chinese CSS-2
missiles without becoming saturated. 
 
SDIO says that BP is more economical than ground-based ABMs for
protecting areas of >800 km radius.  BPs are slated to cost $10
million apiece, or $10 billion for the full constellation of 1,000,
plus launch costs (about $5 million apiece).  In contrast, the damage
from the destruction of one large city would be over $100 billion plus
untold human suffering. 
 
Deployment dates and continuation of R&D assume Congress approves
funding, of course. 
-- 
[email protected]  Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbooks
Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 644-8135 (1200/2400, N81) 

Article: 44660
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: seds%[email protected]
Subject: SDIO Project "Clementine"
Sender: [email protected] (University Space Society)
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1992 02:42:00 GMT
 
I just returned from the American Society of Civil Engineers
Conference "Space 92." Its focus was on Lunar and Mars operations by
people who do this kind of thing on Earth like Civil Engineers. (What
a novel concept, asking people who do this kind of thing.) 
 
Mike Griffin spoke there as well as many other folks, including Buzz
Aldrin and a particularly interesting gentleman from SDIO at the
Pentagon. His name is Col. Simon P Worden. He took over Griffin's job
at SDIO. He is the deputy for technology development there. He spoke
at lunch on monday about an SDIO project called Clementine.  This
mission is a technology demonstration of the Brilliant eyes sensor
system.  The mission is this:  Launch from Earth to a lunar polar
orbit, map the Moon with high resolution sensors and do other tests to
check out the instruments in a high radiation environment.  Then the
Eyes probe will DEPART lunar orbit, to an Earth flyby and go out and
do a flyby of the asteroid Geographos, which is a Near Earth Crossing
Asteroid. 
 
The reason for doing this mission according to SDIO folks is to test
the Eyes sensors in a radiation rich environment.  He stated that they
could almost as much data on the performance of the Eyes system,
pertaining to its radiation environment performance as they can with
an underground nuclear blast.  This also is much cheaper than an
underground nuclear test. 
 
Clementine is supposed to fly next year.  How is that for a return to
the Moon!  Any Comments? 
 
Also, it is my understanding that lava tubes here on Earth form
when a lava flow cools in a skin fashion. This skin then insulates the
lava underneath so that when the lava flow ceases, the lava does not
harden under the skin but flows on to wherever it is flowing.  This
leaves the interior of the lava flow empty, therefore makeing a lava
tube.  We have pictures from lunar orbiter four of many lava tubes
that we have digitized. When we get an Ethernet board we will try to
make thesea available to everyone.  We happen to have every picture
ever taken by the Boeing/Nasa Lunar Orbiter mission from 1966-7 on
microfilm. 
 
Please respond to me at my address as my time is very limited due to
COMET, SPACEHAB, and CONSORT experiment deadlines. I just don't have
time to do the SSF thing right now. 
 
Dennis, University of Alabama in Huntsville.
 
We must start SEI by 1994 or 1995 or it will not happen in this generation.
 
Quote by NASA associate administrator for Space Exploration, Mike Griffin 
at a panel discussion during SPACE 92 in Denver Colorado this week. 
 

Article: 4083
From: [email protected] (WILLIAM D. MURRAY)
Newsgroups: clari.news.military,clari.tw.science,clari.tw.education
Subject: Lawrence Livermore curtails advanced weapons research
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 16:38:38 PST
 
	LIVERMORE, Calif. (UPI) -- Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, one of the nation's leading advanced weapons research
facilities, announced Wednesday it was refocusing its efforts away
from defense projects like the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). 

	Spokesman Jeff Garberson said the lab -- located 45 miles
southeast of San Francisco -- has decided to reorganize its Physics
Department, home to Star Wars projects like the Brilliant Pebbles
anti-missile system. 

	``This is the first reorganization of our Physics Department
in three years,'' he said. ``And it reflects our focus for the future.
We are gearing down our weapons research. Our traditional nuclear
weapon design program has become less than a third of our effort.'' 

	However, Garberson was quick to add the laboratory would
continue on with $60 million in SDI-funded research this year. 

	``Our funding in the Star Wars area was about $180 million
three years ago,'' he said. ``We have $60 million left and will use
that up.'' 

	Like other national laboratories, Lawrence Livermore is
wrestling with how best to survive the end of the Cold War. The
facility has already entered into $110 million worth of Cooperative
R&D Agreements (CRADAs) with private companies to work on the
technologies needed for the 21st century. 

	``The lab is trying to adjust at every opportunity to the
changing national needs and wishes of the (Clinton) administration,''
he said. ``But this is a big place and we can't change overnight.
Change certainly is happening.'' 

	Before the end of the Cold War, the laboratory was known for
its Star Wars research. During the 1980s, the facility's scientists
proposed to launch an orbiting nuclear-powered X-ray laser that would
shoot down incoming missiles. 

	Then there was Brilliant Pebbles -- a project that called for
the launching of thousands of tiny satellites that would hone in and
destroy incoming missiles. 

	The projects' futurist nature drew criticism that helped deflate 
public support for the pet project of the Reagan administration. 

	``The Livermore lab was not at all important to (SDI's)
success,'' said Angelo Codevilla, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover
Institution who worked on the Star Wars project for the Reagan
administration. ``It was terribly important to its failure.'' 

	Garberson said the laboratory was also beefing up its program
to police the selling of nuclear weapons research materials to Third
World nations. 

	``We have established a non-proliferation program,'' he said.
``We want to prevent the spread of information on mass destruction
weapons to Third World countries.'' 

	Garberson added that there had not been a problem in the past
with the selling of such technology, but that the Clinton
administration has made prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons
information a priority. 

Article: 13071
From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.military,clari.news.gov.usa
Subject: Report Weinberger approved faked SDI missile tests
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 93 5:11:46 PDT
 
	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
approved a scheme that involved rigging a test of the ``Star Wars''
missile defense system that misled the Soviet Union and Congress about
the validity of the questionable project, it was reported Wednesday.

	Four officials who served with Weinberger in the administration of
President Ronald Reagan said the deceptive missile intercept test in
1984 was ordered to convince the Soviets that the Strategic Defense
Initiative was a realistic threat.

	The unidentified officials told The New York Times that the Kremlin,
fearful of a commanding American advantage, had to divert billions of
dollars to counter the unproven missile shield.

	However, the newspaper said the false test data directed at Moscow
also was used in congressional briefings and helped persuade lawmakers
to spend more development money on SDI.

	Weinberger would not confirm or deny the report.

	``You always work on deception,'' the Times quoted Weinberger as
saying. ``You are obviously trying to mislead your opponents and to make
sure that they don't know the actual facts.''

	The rigged test involved placing a transmitter on the target missile,
and a receiver on the intercept missile, thus locking in a collision,
the report said. Three previous tests had failed, and it was feared
another failure would severely curtail development money.

Article: 13079
From: [email protected] (CHARLES DOE)
Newsgroups: clari.news.military,clari.news.gov.usa
Subject: General denies Star Wars missile test was faked
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 93 12:48:05 PDT
 
	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
approved a scheme to rig a test of the ``Star Wars'' missile intercept
system to mislead the Soviet Union into squandering resources, and the
deception ultimately included Congress, it was reported Wednesday.

	Weinberger declined direct comment on the New York Times
report, but said it is always beneficial for the United States to
deceive its adversaries. 

	An Army general who helped oversee the missile defense program
at the time of of the disputed 1984 test rejected the allegation in an
interview with United Press International. 

	``I would deny that we did anything to rig the test,'' retired
Maj. Gen. Eugene Fox, former deputy manager of the Army's Ballistic
Missile Defense Program, said of the report. 

	The Times reported four former officials in the administration
of President Ronald Reagan said the test warhead interception was
faked in order to mislead Moscow into spending vast resources to
counter the perceived threat. 

	The newspaper said the same faked data was used in private
congressional briefings to convince lawmakers to maintain financial
support of the Strategic Defense Initiative program to counter
nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. 

	``Star Wars'' was proposed by Reagan in 1983 as a shield
against nuclear devastation, but the program was criticized by
opponents as a worthless and expensive folly. The Soviet Union later
disintegrated under economic and political forces, ending the
thermonuclear threat. SDI was canceled this year by Defense Secretary
Les Aspin, although some related aspects of the project continue to be
funded. 

	Senator David Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, has asked the
General Accounting Office, the congressional investigative agency,
about possible deception on missile testing. 

	On Wednesday, Pryor asked Aspin to investigate whether the
Pentagon deceived Congress in an attempt to mislead the Soviets and
whether former Reagan aides, including the president himself, misled
Congress. He also asked that the inquiry determine if military
contractors working on the program were ``aware of the disinformation
campaign.'' 

	The New York Times did not identify the four former officials.
Weinberger declined to confirm or deny the report, but said there is
nothing wrong in deceiving opponents. 

	``You always work on deception,'' the Times quoted Weinberger
as saying. ``You are obviously trying to mislead your opponents and to
make sure that they don't know the actual facts.'' 

	There was nothing passive about the reaction from Fox.

	``The article obviously called me a liar,'' he said. ``I
obviously got very angry.'' 

	Three previous SDI tests had failed, and proponents feared
another missed intercept would lead skeptics in Congress to severely
curtail the epxnediture of millions of dollars in development money. 

	The Times article alleged that in the 1984 test, a beacon
onboard the warhead that was intercepted was used to guide the
missile-launched interceptor to it. 

	In fact, Fox said, the beacon was merely used to launch the
huge Minuteman intercontinental missile that lofted the interceptor
into space. 

	It had nothing to do with the test, which was designed to
prove the intercept vehicle and the onboard guidance that led it to
its target, he said. 

	``Once the sensor opened its eyes,'' Fox said, ``it was on its
own.'' The launch missile had dropped away earlier and was gone. 

	The interceptor was guided by infrared optics designed to
detect the heat of the incoming missile warhead against the black
coldness of surrounding space. 

	The guidance system made continual corrections in the
intercept vehicle's flight to keep it on a collision course with the
warhead, Fox said. 

	Just before impact, the interceptor sprung open a 15-foot
metal frame that resembled a huge umbrella.  It smashed the warhead
into a shower of metal fragments. 

	``The intercept,'' the Defense Department announced in 1984, ``was 
a first for the United States and, as far as is known, for the world.'' 

Article: 13384
From: [email protected] (CHARLES DOE)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.usa,clari.news.military
Subject: Aspin defends ``Star Wars'' missile test but reveals deception plan
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 19:48:08 PDT
 
	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Les Aspin denied published
reports Thursday that a critical 1984 ``Star Wars'' missile warhead
interception test had been faked, but he revealed that such a deception
of the Soviet Union had at least been tried.

	``To sum up,'' Aspin said, ``the experiment was not rigged and
deception did not take place, although a program to practice deception
existed.''

	``There was a deception program aimed at the Soviet Union associated
with the experiments,'' he said, ``but it deceived no one because it was
not used.''

	Aspin said the deception program was part of that category of highly
secret activities called special access programs, which consisted of an
explosive charge aboard the target vehicle.

	``The plan was to detonate the charge in order to give a near miss
the appearance of a direct hit, to give Moscow (the impression) our
efforts were more successful than they were.''

	The first three target warheads fired in the test series carried such
explosive charges, Aspin said, but the interceptors fired at them never
got close enough to make a detonation convincing.

	In late 1983, the deception plan was abandoned and there was no such
explosive charge aboard the fourth target warhead. It was smashed to
bits in a collision with a successful interceptor in June 1984.

	Aspin was reporting on the results of an investigation that he
ordered three weeks ago after the New York Times published a story
alleging that the historic interception -- believed to be the first of
its kind -- had actually been faked to fool the Soviet Union.

	Quoting unidentified Reagan administration sources, the Times article
said the false test data was then passed to Congress where it was used
to justify funding for the controversial ``Star Wars'' antimissile
defense program.

	The original Times article had claimed that the target warhead had
carried a beacon which guided the interceptor on its collision course.

	Aspin said Thursday that the target warhead did indeed carry a beacon
but it was used for purposes other than guiding the interceptor, which
could not receive the beacon's signals.

	Other subsequent articles had claimed that the target warhead was
heated before launch to make it more visible to the interceptor's heat-
seeking infrared guidance system.

	Aspin confirmed that the warhead was warmed, but he argued that it
did not violate the test objectives, which were precisely to determine
whether a heat seeking guidance system would work.

	Another defense official, who spoke under condition of anonymity,
noted that in an earlier test the infrared interceptor had been
distracted by heat generated by its own passage through the atmosphere.
He said the target had been heated to compensate for that. Others have
said that an actual warhead entering the atmosphere would have been much
warmer than the test target was.

	Far from keeping Congress in the dark about the beacon aboard the
warhead and the fact that it was heated, the Pentagon reported both and
the artificially heated warhead was discussed in a seperate report
sponsored by Congress.

	Aspin said there was a communications link between the ground and 
the interceptor that could have been used to guide the interceptor to its
target, but he maintained that this was not done.

	Aspin also said that the target warhead was loaded with a small
amount of illuminating powder like that in flash bulbs. The purpose was
to make the impact of the warhead and interceptor more visible to
cameras monitoring the test. The flash would only occur if the
interceptor scored a direct hit, which it did.

	``Overall,'' Aspin said, ``our conclusion on the experiment is this:
It was not rigged by the inclusion of a radar beacon on the target, nor
by any other means. The experiment demonstrated that the final guidance
of the interceptor to a direct hit was done by the on-board heat seeker.''

Article: 4779
From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.science,clari.local.illinois,clari.tw.space
Subject: U of I Astronomer gets $3.3 million to make telescopes better
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 16:18:43 PDT
 
	URBANA, Ill. (UPI)-- A University of Illinois Astronomer has
been granted $3.3 million from the National Science Foundation to
develop an instrument that would make telescopes on Earth as accurate
as the orbiting Hubble telescope, yet cheaper and easier to service. 

	The concept, devised by Laird Thompson, combines laser technology 
with a rippling mirror developed for the ``Star Wars'' (SDI) project. 

	In Thomposon's instrument, a laser beam would project a
``guide star'' into the atmosphere.  This image, much like a real star,
would be distorted by the atmosphere.  A computer would then calculate
this distortion and use the bendable mirror to correct for it, making
images of the heveanly bodies around the guide star clearer. 

	``It will take three years to build the computer control
equipment that makes everything work together as a system,'' Thompson
said.  ``It will take a year to test the system, and then we'll have a
year to use it.'' 

	Once it is developed, the system will be used in the 100-inch
telescope at the Mount Wilson observatory in Pasedena, California. 

	The system will use an excimer laser rather than a sodium
laser, which is being used in guide star projects under development at
the University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, CA.  Thompson said an
excimer laser is better because it is cheaper and produces brighter
guide stars than sodium lasers. 

	``No one has yet produced a sodium guide star image that is
bright and sharply focused,'' Thompson said. ``The sharpest sodium
guide star is still five times bigger than a natural star,'' making
correction for distortion impossible. 

	While astronomers could use very bright, natural stars to
correct the distortion, doing so would limit observation to the
patches of sky closest to those bright stars.  A guide star, however,
can be moved anywhere, thus expanding an astronomer's view. 

	``We may be able to use the increased clarity of the new
system to help find black holes and dark matter,'' Thompson said. 

Article: 3862
From: [email protected] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.western,clari.tw.space,clari.tw.defense
Subject: ``Star Wars'' Optics May Help Find New Planets
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 9:10:28 PST
 
	 LONDON (Reuter) - Advanced optics developed for the U.S.
``Star Wars'' space defense program can be used to help search for
planets outside Earth's solar system, a U.S. astronomer reported
Wednesday. 

	 The atmosphere distorts images taken of stars from the
ground, making it hard for scientists to tell if there are planets
circling other stars, and thus whether there is extraterrestrial life.

	 Roger Angel at the University of Arizona modified a military
``adaptive optics'' system to correct the distorting effects of the
Earth's atmosphere.  He said it could be used to look for planets from
an Earth-based telescope. 

	 Adaptive optics systems include advanced electronics, image
sensors, a segmented, movable mirror and a computer. 

	 ``It seems likely that by the end of the decade ground-based
observations will either have found planets around nearby
main-sequence stars, or have shown conclusively that planets of the
size of Jupiter are rare,'' Angel wrote in the science journal Nature.

	 Angel said no telescope exists now that could find a planet.
The Hubble space telescope, which is orbiting the Earth and taking
pictures of objects in deep space, cannot detect extraterrestrial
life, he said. 

	 ``Unfortunately the Hubble telescope will probably lack the
sensitivity for optical detection of an extrasolar planet, even of the
size and orbital radius of Jupiter...,'' he said. 

	 San Diego-based ThermoTrex Corp makes adaptive optics systems
for the U.S. military and also supplied a system to the University of
Arizona.