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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Assembling supercomputers in space (Tom Worthington)
2. Re: Assembling supercomputers in space (Stephen Loosley)
3. Re: Assembling supercomputers in space (David)
4. Re: Assembling supercomputers in space (Tom Worthington)
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 22 May 2025 11:40:46 +1000
From: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] Assembling supercomputers in space
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
On 5/22/25 10:01, Antony Barry wrote:
> Donald Trump?s ?Golden Dome? proposal is a sweeping, multilayered missile
> defense initiative aimed at protecting the United States ...
President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) aka "Star Wars"
V2? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
> ... place U.S. missile interceptors and sensors in orbit ...
The USA already has sensors in orbit to detect missile launches. The
Regan era proposal included space based interceptors, but this was
technically and politically problematic.
> ... pre-launch to their final descent?anywhere in the world ...
Such a system could be used to threaten any target anywhere in the world
at any time. As well as being a terror weapon, it would be problematic
for any leader to have.
> ... defend the entire U.S. ...
SDI started off to protect the USA, but got more and more limited. The
current proposal will likely also be scaled back to protect key military
and political sites. That can be done with ground based missiles and
lasers, at less cost, and risk.
> ... centralized command structure ...
How you control such a system is a major challenge. It would have to be
partly automatic, with poses major risks.
This is also an issue for Australia, as our newer warships have the
capability to shoot down ballistic missiles (my students help develop
the radar for this). Should Australia have its own capability for this?
Should we be part of any US system?
ps: Not all President Trump's ideas are crazy. He recnely floated the
idea of a two engine F-35 fighter.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/05/16/pentagon-silent-aviation-experts-baffled-by-trumps-fighter-comments/
I wrote a blog post proposing this 15 years ago:
https://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/11/proposed-f-35d-long-range-variant.html
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 22 May 2025 12:24:59 +0930
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "dlochrin" <[email protected]>
Cc: link <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [LINK] Assembling supercomputers in space
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
---- On Thu, 22 May 2025 10:37:49 +0930? David
<mailto:[email protected]> wrote ---
> Well, this is just what the world needs now... cowboys & Indians in space
> waged by Donald Trump with nuclear weapons.
>
> The ABC News website reports China's response:
> > Donald Trump's "Golden Dome" risks turning space "into a
> > war zone" China has warned. Beijing says the air defence
> > system also breaches space law.
> > The US president is pushing ahead with the plan despite
> > questions over its feasibility. and its affordability? ..
> >
> _David Lochrin_
>
> -----------------
>
> > On Thursday, 22 May 2025 10:01:11 AEST Antony Barry wrote:
> >
> > Meanwhile in the US -
> >
> > Donald Trump?s ?Golden Dome? proposal is a sweeping,
> > multilayered missile defense initiative aimed at protecting
> > the United States from advanced?aerial threats?including
> > ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, as well as potential
> > attacks launched from space. Announced in May 2025, the
> > Golden Dome is projected to cost $175 billion, with an initial
> > $25 billion?requested through a new budget bill[1][2][7].
Here's a D-Brief graphic of the planned US "Golden Dome" ...
https://www.dia.mil/Portals/110/Documents/News/golden_dome.pdf?oref=d_brief_nl&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20D%20Brief:%20May%2021%2C%202025&utm_term=newsletter_d1_dbrief
Happy trails, Linkers
--
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 22 May 2025 13:21:25 +1000
From: David <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] Assembling supercomputers in space
Message-ID: <14216682.2vocr9iq0E@ulysses>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
On Thursday, 22 May 2025 11:40:46 AEST Tom Worthington wrote:
> Should Australia have its own capability for this?
What are we talking about here? A space-based supercomputer / AI system
located in space would presumably avoid both the power and cooling problems
associated with terrestial systems, no small thing. I notice this wasn't
mentioned in the original post.
> Should we be part of any US system?
However orbital weaponry is another matter entirely. Once a relatively small
nation like Australia becomes part of a larger US-based system it loses all
control of it, and I fail to see what we would gain.
_David Lochrin_
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 23 May 2025 08:31:23 +1000
From: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
To: [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] Assembling supercomputers in space
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
On 5/22/25 13:21, David wrote:
> On Thursday, 22 May 2025 11:40:46 AEST Tom Worthington wrote:
>
>
> > Should Australia have its own capability for this?
>
> What are we talking about here?? ..
An anti-ballistic missile system. Some Australian warships are already
capable of local missile defence, using a US system. The data from the
radars on Australian and allied warships can be combined, and the
missiles on all the ships coordinated.
When switched to "Automatic", the computers decide how many missiles to
launch, when.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_System
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
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