March 15, 2010
Byron Shire Echo – Ph 02 6684 1777
October 3, Byron Shire EchoArticlesOzs role in arming the heavensGareth Smith October 1-8, Keep Space for Peace Week, is an international protest to stop the militarisation of space. Just up the road from Byron Bay is the University of Queensland, where the Department of Physics is being funded by the US Defence Advance Research Projects Agency DARPA to do research on scramjet engines capable of achieving velocities of Mach , or about ,km an hour. This is part of the Australian Hypersonics Initiative which involves the Australian National University and the University of NSW, Defence Force Academy, Canberra. The University of Queensland UQ News Online states that ights Sydney-London would only take two hours using scramjet propulsion but what is not stated are the military applications of this research. DARPA is developing a hypersonic edge of space bomber Falcon which can take off from any aireld and carry ,lbs of nuclear or conventional weapons anywhere in the world in a couple of hours. The bombs would hit Earth targets at hypersonic velocity and be able to penetrate to great depth before exploding just the thing, they say, for Afghanistan and Iraq. ing on lift-off like Challenger or exploding on the launch pad like Apollo 1 does not seem to deter these nuclear narcoleptics. Australia is heavily involved in the militarisation of space even though this clashes with our ratication of the UN Treaty on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the Moon Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The Howard government has signed up to an enormous nancial commitment unspecied to participate in the National Missile Defence aka the Son of Star Wars project which is actually an aggressive rst strike system having very little to do with protecting civilians. A recent opinion poll shows a majority of Australians feel Australia subordinates its foreign policy and strategic objectives to those of the US they want Australia to focus on what is good for this country. We are already mired in the Iraq debacle thanks to the Howard governments blind acceptance of badly flawed US intelligence and now we are complicit in arming the heavens. The time is long past when we must demand an immediate halt to this collaboration in infamy, some of it on Byrons doorstep.Artists impression of the DARPA edge of space vehicle.The US ambition is to have Full Spectrum Dominance through which Earth will be controlled in the interests of the U.S military or commercial space competitors will be denied space access if they do not conform to US dictates. President Bush in his January , Moon, Mars and Beyond speech makes clear that US military and commercial dominance of space is an absolute national priority. Americas civilian and military space programs are converging, with the extra funding which Bush proposed in order to reach Mars likely to accelerate this convergence. NASA has already become an integral part of the US Airforces Space Command which has alreadyabsorbed the bomber wing of the airforce, Strategic Air Command. Former NASA director Sean OKeefe said that NASA was looking forward to providing agency resources for the war on terror and that from now on all space missions had to be considered dual purpose, ie military and civilian. This is exemplied by his comments that NASA and the Department of Defense are collaborating in Project Prometheus nuclear propulsion research. If these Masters of Space, as they like to call themselves, have their way, nuclearised space will soon be commonplace. Orbiting Chernobyls, no doubt fuelled by Australian uranium, will supply the huge power requirements of space-based laser weapons. The prospect of these explod-EXHIBITIONS ONSITE CAMPING GYPSY ROLLERS THEATRE KIDS ACTIVITIESGENERAL ENQUIRIES PH VOLUNTEER ENQUIRIES PH EMAIL INFOWOLLUMBINDREAMING.ORG WWW.WOLLUMBINDREAMING.ORGBOOMERANGSHUTTLE BUS SERVICE PH MARK