vincentanton-ga, Feel free to ask for clarificaton and/or direction if
these 8 answers to your question are not what you're seeking.
First, all searches are courtesy of www.google.com at:
://www.google.com/
When search terms are indicated, you should include all punctuation
exactly as listed.
Negative Aspects as the Results of Space Exploration
1. Falling Radioactive Satellites
Spy satellites are usually powered by radioactive decay. When they
fall, they can cause dire consequences
Search terms:
+"space pollution" +radioactive
Example:
Wavelength 13 - the Spy that Fell to Earth
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/fas/wavelength/wave13/html/satellit.html
Additional search terms:
"space debris"
2. Loss of Privacy
Satellites and satellite telecommunications are a technology which
comes of space exploration, and their advent has resulted in a loss
of privacy. All of our messages now can be intercepted.
Search terms:
+"spy satellites" +"lack of privacy"
Example:
Cyber Warfare and Telecommunications Espionage
http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oagmc029.html
3. Spectacular Failures are Huge Money Wasters
Mars Observer fails in 1993 at a cost of 1 billion dollars. For
nothing.
Search terms:
+"mars polar lander" +budget
Example:
Why Did Mars Polar Lander Fail?
http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/shirley_Q&A_000121.html
4. Death
Manned space exploration has resulted in the deaths of a number of
highly skilled and talented individuals.
Jan. 27, 1967: Fire in an Apollo capsule kills astronauts Virgil I.
"Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White 2nd and Roger Chaffee during a launch
pad training exercise.
Jan. 28, 1986: Seven astronauts die when the shuttle Challenger
explodes 73 seconds after launch on what would have been the 25th
mission in the shuttle program.
Search terms:
astronauts die
Example:
Thirty Five Years in Space
http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/special/challenger/docs/graphic.html
5. Proliferation of mechanisms for killing lots of people
Exotic means for killing people are now possible, from directed energy
beams to "thunder rods" which when "tossed down from orbit, these long
and slender kinetic-energy devices use their own mass and very high
velocity to create a destructive effect. "
Search terms:
"space weapons"
Example:
Space Weapons for Earth Wars
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_war_020515-1.html
6. Terrorism is Facilitated by the Global Positioning System (GPS), a
product of space exploration
Terrorists can disrupt the GPS, as well as use it for targeting (e.g.,
crashing airplanes in to skyscrapers).
Search terms:
terrorism gps
Examples:
Report Cites Vulnerabilities of Global Navigation System by Mathew L.
Wald
http://cartome.org/gps-risk.htm
The above article appeared in the New York Times on September 11,
2001.It was written December 10, 2001
United States of America vs. ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI
http://www.c-span.org/terrorism/moussaoui.asp
"77. On or about August 22, 2001, in Miami, Florida, Ziad Jarrah (#93)
purchased an antenna for a Global Positioning System ("GPS"), other
GPS related equipment, and schematics for 757 cockpit instrument
diagrams. (GPS allows an individual to navigate to a position using
coordinates pre-programmed into the GPS unit.)"
7. Small possibility that we are advertising our existence to warlike
aliens who will attack us
Search terms:
+"extraterrestrial intelligence" +"here we are" +war
"The message was in the form of a television picture coded in binary
form along the lines proposed by Bernard Oliver and Frank Drake as a
likely mode of interstellar attention-getting. What Sir Martin may not
have realized was that the target stars were so distant that the
"message" would not reach them for 24,000 years and by then would be
so weak that interception was unlikely. It was not a really serious
attempt at interstellar communication. Nevertheless Sir Martin urged
that no attempt at direct contact be made without international
agreement-possibly through the International Astronomical Union. In
urging I.A.U. action he said there was no assurance "they" would be
friendly. They might look upon the earth as a new field for
colonization and exploitation. "
From ...
Example:
What if we succeed? by Walter Sullivan
http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/sullivan.htm
8. Space Exploration Can Cause Corporate Corruption
Since it takes a large government bureacracy to successfully engage in
space exploration, corruption is inevitable.
Terms:
"space exploration" corruption contractors
Example:
The Privatization of NASA: a Risky Business (Rought Draft)
http://engineering.rowan.edu/~wiss2124/RoughDraft.html
fugitive-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
fugitive-ga
on
02 Jul 2002 20:56 PDT
vincentanton-ga,
Here's a response to your request for clarification, specifically, the
effect on space flights on the earth's ozone layer.
According to:
Depletion Causes
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Ozone/depletion.html
"Each shuttle launch produces about 68 tons of HCl, most of that
released in the troposphere. Ten launches per year would amount to
less than 0.06% of the yearly chlorofluorcarbons released which was
1.2 million tons per year in the 1980's."
The entire article basically points out that all other forms of
chlorofluorcarbon production (including natural causes, such as
volcanoes) far outstrip any contribution by space launches. It is
interesting that there is an effect, just a negligible one.
Ozone Depletion FAQ
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ozone-depletion/intro/
Also discussing this issue:
Satellites and the Atmosphere
http://newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99480.htm
"The ozone layer is affected by a particular kind of air pollution
that
acts as a catalyst to break down ozone. A craft entering or leaving
earth
could pollute the atmosphere as it moves through it, but this would
make a
very, very tiny contribution compared to the major causes of ozone
depletion."
You can find out more sites on the web by searching www.google.com
with the following terms (including all punctuation, such as quotation
marks):
"causes of ozone depletion" +"launches"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&q=%22causes+of+ozone+depletion%22+%2B%22launches%22&btnG=Google+Search
Thanks for asking a fascinating question. I must confess that my
favority "negative aspect" of space exploration is the potential for
alien invasions!
fugitive-ga
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