Monday, March 12, 2007
Welcome to Tech!
This is where you can find all the latest updates from the Tech section of Hot Psychology Magazine! We're always looking for new writers and new leads on the latest and greatest tech out there today!
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Stellar Property and Land Rights
Part V of the Science Behind Settling the Stars series
By Earl Wynn
When we think about colonizing other planets around other stars, we think of the future, we think of shows like Star Trek where mankind has progressed to some level of enlightenment that is beyond the petty greed of corporate commerce gone haywire, but the fact is we are there, and we haven’t. Using technology that has been available to us since the 1960's (yeah, we could have started that early) we can set up sustainable colonies on any number of local planets and moons (travel time can be awfully prohibitive, though) and build an entire network of orbiting installations capable of doing everything from collecting solar energy to providing housing for some of the world’s already overflowing population– but even in the case of these floating islands waiting to be born just beyond the blue embrace of our little world, the question will always raise its ugly head above the waves of good intention: Who owns it, pays for it, and maintains it?
The ISS (International Space Station) is a classic example of this. When looking at the breakdown of ownership for each module, we see that everything comes down to a list of percentages, each tied to a different Space Agency. Our own NASA (predictably) takes 100% ownership of a few parts of the station, including the original “Zarya” module that was manufactured by the Russians and placed in orbit as the foundation for the station in 1998. Other organizations like JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) the ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) have cut themselves a piece of the orbiting pie as well, with each taking less than half of the other modules not (yet) wholly owned by NASA. It figures then that, thus far, the United States also leads the other nations involved with the ISS project in the number of permanent crew members and visiting guests from each country, with Russia coming in second ...
To read the rest of this article in Hot Psychology Magazine, click here.
For more from this talented writer, click here
By Earl Wynn
When we think about colonizing other planets around other stars, we think of the future, we think of shows like Star Trek where mankind has progressed to some level of enlightenment that is beyond the petty greed of corporate commerce gone haywire, but the fact is we are there, and we haven’t. Using technology that has been available to us since the 1960's (yeah, we could have started that early) we can set up sustainable colonies on any number of local planets and moons (travel time can be awfully prohibitive, though) and build an entire network of orbiting installations capable of doing everything from collecting solar energy to providing housing for some of the world’s already overflowing population– but even in the case of these floating islands waiting to be born just beyond the blue embrace of our little world, the question will always raise its ugly head above the waves of good intention: Who owns it, pays for it, and maintains it?
The ISS (International Space Station) is a classic example of this. When looking at the breakdown of ownership for each module, we see that everything comes down to a list of percentages, each tied to a different Space Agency. Our own NASA (predictably) takes 100% ownership of a few parts of the station, including the original “Zarya” module that was manufactured by the Russians and placed in orbit as the foundation for the station in 1998. Other organizations like JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) the ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) have cut themselves a piece of the orbiting pie as well, with each taking less than half of the other modules not (yet) wholly owned by NASA. It figures then that, thus far, the United States also leads the other nations involved with the ISS project in the number of permanent crew members and visiting guests from each country, with Russia coming in second ...
To read the rest of this article in Hot Psychology Magazine, click here.
For more from this talented writer, click here
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