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 BBS: The Matrix BBS
Date: 01-23-98 (16:18)             Number: 195
From: JACK SARGEANT                Refer#: NONE
  To: ALL                           Recvd: NO
Subj: 5                              Conf: (195) UFO
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 for ; Fri, 23 Jan 1998 06:13:44 -0500 (EST)
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 16:44:33 -0800 (PST)
From: Kerry Ferrand 
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: The Case for the Secret Exploration of Space 
ntnd)
> Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 09:05:31 +0200
> From: Jakes Louw 
> To: updates@globalserve.net
> Subject: USAF: The Case for the Secret Exploration of Space...
>       -Forwarded
>Clementine...
>I was surprised when the Clementine satellite was launched and it was
>sent off to map every square inch of the Moon. Then it set off for?
>(Was it Venus?). What really surprised me was that Clementine was
>supposed to be the first project funded by the Department of Defence
>to leave Earth orbit. I'm curious. Since when does the Moon (or Venus?
>Is it Venus?) have anything to do with US National Security? Why would
>they want to map ever square inch of the Moon?
Clementine was a sensor test bed for the BMDO (ex SDI) it was
intended to also get close to an asteroid (not Venus) but a
malfunction ended that plan. They strung a bunch of "cheap"
cameras and systems together and then looked for a good test for
them..the moon looked good and it would have a nice science
payoff for them too (good for PR too). Similar sensor tests
continue with the MSTI series of satellites launched into earth
orbit..I assume the US thinks missile defence is a national
security issue..
>ION Engines....
>I remember reading a lot about the wonders of Ion engines back in the
>1970's. They are low-impulse engines. i.e. they don't have much
>"kick."

>There is also another development worth noting - which I've never
>heard anyone speak of. I saw an interview of a scientist who stated
>that the next engine which we need to develop is a nuclear rocket
>engine.
Nuclear rocket engine designs have been around since the 1950s
>It makes me think of the nuclear submarine. This was the
>concept of a single Captain in the US Navy who decided to try sticking
>a nuclear reactor in a submarine. He found it could be done and hey
>presto he invented the nuclear submarine.
I belive he refers to Adm. Rickover here..
>How easy would it be to
>produce a nuclear rocket engine with today's nuclear technology? I've
>never heard of any work being done on it. Or has there been work on it
>which we know nothing of?
There's been PLENTY of work on Nuclear engines done... sheesh...
a 5 minute search on the internet will pull up alot of material.
Projects such as NERVA, DUMBO were large efforts in the 1960s,,
more recently there was the classified (and leaked) TIMBERWIND...
all of those were nuclear-thermal designs (ie... throw hydrogen
over a hot reactor and make the result vent out the back)...
there are many other concepts... including things like the Orion
"blast our way into space with atom bombs behind us" and assorted
nuclear-electric schemes. No doubt there was/is plenty of secret
work in this area too.
>But back to ION Engines. I vaguely remembered the ION engine, but
>strangely no one writes about it any more. My buddy the spy had told
>me this about drones: "You won't see anything about it in books and
>magazines. The real stuff is all hush hush." I thought I was dreaming
>about ion engines.
This is so much BS, there's nothing secret about Ion engines...
again a WWW search will find plenty. Entire books have been
written on them... small ion engines have been put into
production for "Station-keeping thrusters" on communication
satellites etc etc
>Then I stumbled upon a book I'd had in the 1970's.
>There it clearly stated, in 1972, that in the 1960's NASA had had a
>working ION engine. It ran for 40 hours on a test bed - 30+ years ago.
>It was supposed to be the next generation space probe engine. But it's
>not.
Work on them continued thru the 70s until today where they
finally have truely reliable working engines. One is about to be
used on NASA's "Deep Space-1" space probe, to be launched this
year I understand.
>Have Ion engines been classified and moved out of NASA's area?
No
>Why didn't NASA ever make use of an idea so promising? Scientists were
>saying what a hot idea this was and then.... poof.... the idea
>dissappears from public view.
He obviously hasn't been looking too hard then
Kerry
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