WEBVTT - War in Space 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.320 From UFOs two ghosts and government cover ups. History is 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.000 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.280 learn the stuff they don't want you to. Now, Hey, everybody, 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.319 welcome back. My name is Matt and I am Ben 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.000 and today we've got a fascinating subject for you, something 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.400 that you've probably been thinking about since you were a kid, 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.040 even if you weren't maybe thinking about the particulars of 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.280 the weaponization of this thing. But space is something that, man, 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.479 it just captures the mind, the young mind especially and 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.360 uh perhaps the young mind that's within all of us. 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.080 Um when you think about the vastness that's out there 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.400 when we're just floating around on this tiny little planet, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.800 And what are the implications of of bringing our human 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:59.040 warlike you know, uh, our ego and uh pushing it 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.880 out to those outer reaches? Like what is that? Yeah, right, 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:07.920 the in the vast inconceivable space of the universe. Are 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.560 we the dicks at the party? I mean, well, that's 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.520 it's a weird thing to think about, and it's just 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:15.840 part of our nature that we kind of have to 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.480 at some point look in the face. Now, let me 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.400 ask you by way of segue, Matt, are you a 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.920 Star Wars or Star Trek fan. If you had to 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.840 pick one, I would wholeheartedly throw myself into the Star 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.440 Trek Star Trek. Huh yeah, world there any particular reason 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.280 my dad and I. I guess my dad mostly he 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.160 got me into the Next Generation. UM, I was really 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.880 hardcore into that. Remember how everybody flipped out on the 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.720 first episode of the Next Generation when there was a 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.680 clean on as part of the crew. Actually, no, I 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.200 don't remember that. I don't remember that, but I did 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.720 read about that later. I'm dating myself. I've flipped out 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.400 as a kid. Um. Well, the the reason that I 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.800 asked this is that these are two of the most 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.920 well known science fiction UM. I guess the right word 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:15.560 would be universes, right, science fiction universes in human history 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:21.200 and um. Both of these are heavily centered on the 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.600 idea that we're going to talk about today in some respect, 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:31.840 which is war in space space space space space. Yeah, 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.280 we have some high class special effects here. UM. But 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.560 this this brings up some really important questions because you 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.880 and I have been exploring this in a bunch of 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:50.440 different ways for a very long time. We talked, most 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:58.680 recently about the intelligence gathering satellite programs, And please go 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:00.799 back and watch that episode of You Haven't Yet. That's 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.880 one of our it's one of my favorite latest episodes 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.720 that we've done, just talking about the importance of having 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:12.120 a wide view, the wider your view of the Earth 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.880 in the world, to be able to look at, say, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.880 if there's a nuclear test going on somewhere, or you know, 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:23.680 really just to observe people are observed, countries and other 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.720 powers that you may see as an adversary. Yes, And 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.400 what we'll be doing in this podcast today, you and 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:36.320 I are going to talk about what makes outer space 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.920 valuable as a as a frontier right for nation states. 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.840 We're going to talk about what legal things might exist 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.360 or already exist to stop it from becoming a war zone. Um. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:53.160 And then we'll also talk about some of the conspiracy 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:59.440 theories regarding militarization or weaponization of space. Uh, and how 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:03.880 much or how little truth is found within these ideas 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.440 and how much or how little we actually know about 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.920 the latest tech. Ah. Yes, that's a very good point 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.920 because a lot of this, as we'll find, is classified. 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:18.800 So first up, we know that the immediate area surrounding 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:24.080 Earth in space is just lousy with space junk and satellites. 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:29.599 We are the UM. We are the galactic equivalent of 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.080 that really trashy neighbor with a bunch of stuff in 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.520 their front yard and a bunch of non working machines 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.120 that nobody bothered to clean up. Old satellites just floating around. Yeah. Well, 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.000 and it's funny because the reason that all of that 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:47.920 is up there is because we've really been in this 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.760 race for such a long time to have that wide view, 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.039 the control, and the ability to see and sense things 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:59.479 from that level. Because having a satellite in orbit is 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.560 a huge, huge deal for a country. Yeah, that's one 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:07.680 of the big three things that space offers any nation 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.919 state capable of making the trip right, UM the and 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.120 it's number one on our list. Actually, uh satellites for 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:19.719 intelligence gathering, the ability to see in something close to 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:24.279 real time what what your opponents, your rivals are doing, 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:29.599 presents a tremendous advantage and in fact, UM may have 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.760 saved us from war a couple of times. I know 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.760 it looks like it sounds as though this might UM 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.800 drive us into a war, but we do know that 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.520 the satellite info during the Cold War that Lyndon Johnson 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.560 received made him realize that the Soviet Union was not 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.920 building near as many bombs as we thought, and he 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.760 famously said, we're building stuff we don't need to build, 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.359 which must have been a huge, you know, um, a 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.360 huge turnoff for some some of our friends in the 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:02.120 defense industry at well. And another thing that it provides 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.320 is the ability to see and know in real time 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.720 what your troops are doing and to communicate from say, oh, 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.000 you know, halfway around the world too, and let your 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.400 other troops know or your other installation know exactly what's 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.440 going on at all times. Uh. The communication alone is 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.120 a huge deal for the military. And that just means 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.359 exactly what it describes. Some of the biggest innovations, some 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.760 of the most uh ambitious R and D programs in 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.880 the world right now are focused on improving communications. So 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.320 not so much building a better bomb as building a 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.480 better way to know where the bombs are yours and 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.239 the other game. And the reason that um, we see 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:49.240 this as such a priority is well, it's kind of 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.200 disturbing if you think about it, but you know, Matt, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:57.480 for much of human history, empires have fallen and risen 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.320 based on this weird lack of communication, like the old 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.480 theory about UM. Now, I've never been able to figure 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.520 out if this is true, but you know people who 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.360 think that the Rothchild family runs the world, and it 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.440 is true that no one really can calculate how much 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.800 money the Rothchild family is an aggregate has It's his 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.680 story for another day. Yes, they don't let me digress. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:26.240 But that old story about UM about how the Rothchild 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.160 family was able to figure out what was actually happening 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:36.120 UM during Napoleonic Uh. I can't remember the exact battle, 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.640 but apparently was able to get information before the other 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.840 folks and play the market with it, and that became 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:48.320 a huge financial windfall. That sort of stuff is, you know, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.400 not necessarily anomalous. Traders have been making money off that 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.920 for centuries, and now this is sort of closing the gap. 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.400 And that's not even the last thing. We know what 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.760 the last thing is on our list of three reasons. Well, yeah, 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.040 it's being able to intercept the communications of those other 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.040 countries with your technology that you have up in space 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.680 and which leads us. I mean, you could just put 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.320 it right into the n s A. You could. We 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.520 could talk about so many things here, we could branch off. Wow, 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:21.480 this is a. This is a great podcast that we 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.560 can probably in the future say, hey, go back and 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.880 listen to our Militarization of Space podcast, because we're gonna 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.360 be talking about a branch of that. For instance, as 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.800 we're recording this, this is the very beginning of two 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.240 thousand fourteen, I forgot to say Happy New Year. Oh yeah, 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.600 Happy New Year everyone. Yeah, Happy New Year everybody as 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.240 we're recording. They still probably hear it later. Um. But 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.840 one of the big pieces of news that hit recently 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.280 as we were coming into the studio is that France 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.360 and I believe the United Arab Emirates may have just 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:58.079 had their intelligent satellite deal scuttled. France was selling a 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.600 belief to intelligence out lights to the u a E. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.480 And then with the NASA or n s A revelations 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.880 excuse me, uh, come to find out that the U 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:13.680 a E has a pretty i'm gonna say a pretty 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:18.720 fair suspicion that some of the technology in these satellites 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.440 may have a built in US government run back door. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.320 So they don't want this to happen because if they 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.160 pay the exorbitant amount of money to buy these satellites 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.800 have them up in space, then what's just constantly sending 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.360 information back to the US. And it doesn't really make 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.040 what they're doing that that important, I guess right. And 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.400 it's not to say that the U A E or 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.959 the U S are necessarily antagonistic toward each other something no, no, no. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.240 And it's not to say that you A has any 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.640 nefarious means by sending the satellites up. It's just that 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.880 kind of that strategic advantage that the U S would 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:02.800 have over whatever they're doing. It's unsettling at best. So 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.719 another question is if this stuff has been going on 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.600 for so long, which it has, then what if any 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:15.320 laws exist or govern the way Earth handles space. Well, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.920 there's one very important document with a super sexy name. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.920 Oh yeah, Well it does have one sexy name, which 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:25.160 is the Outer Space Treaty. That's yeah, it does. But 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.560 if you read the entire thing, the formal title, the 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:31.720 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States and the 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.320 Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:40.319 other celestial bodies. Oh wow, be still my beating heart. 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.880 But sexy or non sexy name aside, this is a 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:49.320 very important treaty. It's one of the only kind of 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.319 its sort in in human history, of course, because it's 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.720 the first time we managed to get the space so 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.040 often that we had to sit down and you know, 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.200 have a town hall meeting about it, um it. And 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.079 it does some really important things. Now, this was brought 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:09.080 into law in nineteen sixty seven, right, and it brings 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.319 a lot of the heavy hitters in the space game 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.079 to the table. And at this point in time, we're 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.360 talking about the Soviet Union, the US, the United Kingdom 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.760 and some others. And one of the things that it 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:26.680 does that's hugely important is that it says no one 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.320 can just own space. You know, it's not like a 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.160 territorial water claim where which we still haven't figured out 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.560 in much of the world today. You know, China and 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.280 Japan and a couple of other countries are in the 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.280 Philippines are fighting over who owns how much of the 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:49.080 water around their countries. Um But this treaty makes space 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.920 a little bit like the South Pole, like no one 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:56.520 can own Antarctica. You can build research stations there, yeah, exactly. 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.240 And one of the most important things that it said 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:04.280 was that you can send something up into space because 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.720 nobody owns it, just like with the research station and 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.760 an ARCA. But and you own that thing that you 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.839 sent up. Whatever it is, that satellite, it's yours, it's 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.360 your country's. UM. But you can't there are a couple 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.360 of things you can't do with it. You can't put 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:24.440 any weapons of mass destruction up there. It's like, no nukes. Yeah, no, 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.160 absolutely no nukes, or of some other kind of crazy 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:32.040 space bacterial I don't know attack. You can't put that 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:37.920 sort of h. James Bond esque laser beam, yes, yes, Um, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:39.839 well see I don't know about a laser beam. I 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:42.559 really want to get down into some of the minutia 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.120 about that. Now they classify what is a conventional one, right, 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.600 we'll get to that part. So, so, no nukes. This 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.400 was a huge part of the agreement because at this time, 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.480 if we remember, UM, the idea of nuclear war was 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:00.200 at the forefront of most people's minds. Um. This also 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.160 limits the use of the Moon. It's supposed to make 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:07.319 the Moon kind of a new Antarctica. Only peaceful purposes, 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.120 and you have to be used for the betterment of 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.960 the entire Earth. If you put a station on the Moon, 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:15.920 you can put a station up there, just can't be 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.839 militarized in any way, right, can't be a military base, 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.920 can't test your Moon weapons, and you also can't conduct 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:27.240 your military moon maneuvers. Um. That's that's the idea. But 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.040 there's something really important and we just mentioned, which is 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:36.160 that the treaty does not prohibit bringing conventional weapons into orbit. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:37.880 And that that's why you and I were a little 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:42.000 bit um, a little bit hesitant to say that a 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.600 laser beam had no place in space, because what defines 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.319 a conventional weapon. We'll get to that in just a second. 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.679 There's another very important part of this treaty, which said 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:58.680 that no one can claim severenity over the Moon by 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.000 means of use or occupation, or by any other means. 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:05.760 Whatever the hell that means. I don't know if it's 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.520 like putting the Moon on your currency, or so putting 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.520 a giant logo on the moon somewhere, maybe dropping a 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.840 flag on there. Yeah, but we're gonna return for this um, 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.720 this idea because it's important, as we'll find out later. 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.160 We talked about the future of this, but one thing's 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.640 for sure. When it comes to the laws, one thing 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:29.040 is unambiguously clear. Countries are supposed to own the satellites 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.640 they launch. With all that said, let's talk. Let's talk 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.480 some tech, right, Yes, Jonathan Strickland would love this part. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:41.360 Now we mentioned the intelligence and Reconnaissance satellites, right, Yes, 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.240 the l r O. The l R O. So the 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.480 l RO are essentially film cameras that are set up 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.040 in space that are set to take a certain amount 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.400 of film that's on the satellite and then launch that 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.160 sucker back down so they can be recovered by someone 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:02.400 on Earth. Wait, whoa whoa film film, straight up film man, 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.800 exposing it to light and old school wow. So before 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.840 digital cameras, we had satellites in the air, in this 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:15.360 in the space air taking taking photos um and dropping 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.400 that down to go to some sort of top secret 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.440 version of Kodak Eastman. Oh yeah and there. I don't know, 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.880 it's it's fascinating to me just the idea that someone 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.880 had that idea and was able to get exposure correct 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:32.520 and and get in focus images of any kind. That's 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.000 I mean, that was a task man. Yeah. And as 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.920 we found when we were looking at at these satellite programs, 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.560 they had a huge failure rate, and the problem was 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.760 once you shoot it up there, it's such a gamble. 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:46.480 It's not like you can take it back down and 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.320 fix it because we didn't have the technology to get 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.560 a spaceship there, or at least we didn't have the 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.480 publicly known technology on. So these are satellites like the 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.640 Velis satellite program. Uh, there's also key Hole or the 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.960 Cage series and Grown. And the last thing, the craziest 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.080 thing to me is once it runs out of film, 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.880 it's just gonna float around and not really do much 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:08.880 of anything unless you can get back up there and 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.240 spend the huge amount of money that it would take 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.640 to get back there and reload it with film, not 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.840 to mention at the time that would have been extremely difficult. 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.400 Now there's another and perhaps the most mysterious thing that 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:26.960 we've included under um under tech, but we don't know 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.560 too much about it right now. Yeah, we might have 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.880 to come back to this and again maybe in ten 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:34.880 years we'll do a follow up to this once we 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:36.800 find out what the heck it actually was, if they 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:41.680 ever declassify any Yes, that's the X thirty seven class 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:49.000 of unmanned space shuttles essentially. Yeah, it's an unmanned reusable spacecraft. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:53.720 It's currently on its third mission and it's been up 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.360 in space for as long as what twelve months before? Yeah? Yeah, 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.240 just flying around and no one will say anything about 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.600 what it's officially doing. Uh super classified ben Yeah. The 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.720 the pr statement from the I think it's the Air 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.399 Force on the Lockheed X thirty seven was something along 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.919 the lines of, well, this third mission is going to 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.320 take lessons learned from the second mission and apply them 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:24.440 to real life applications. Were excited. That was, man, Yeah, 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.360 I feel sorry for you whoever had to write that one. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:28.840 So it's up there, it's unmanned. We don't know what 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.800 it's doing with no idea. Um we know that given 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:38.480 the capabilities of shuttles right that it has, it has 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:43.159 some maneuverability that a satellite would not have. Yeah exactly, 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.960 But to what end? Yeah? To what end? Indeed? And 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.000 is there someone controlling? And this is I really want 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.840 to just know more about the technology, even even well, 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.240 I'm more fascinated by what the heck it's classified mission is, 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.000 but I want to know how it's controlled. Is it 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.760 really autonomous? Um? Or is somebody controlling it the way 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.639 they would control a predator aircraft a drone? Yeah? And 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.240 if so, what's the lag. Yeah, gosh, man, I just 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.119 want to know. It's fascinating. So, um, we will probably 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.600 have to come back to the X thirty seven at 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.640 some other point in time. But there are other conventional 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:22.520 weapons that have been used in space that we included 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:29.000 under technology. Right, Yeah, let's talk about the most simple one. Uh, 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.720 straight up handgun. Just a good old fashioned nine millimeter. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:35.840 I don't even know if it was a nine millimeter 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.800 or not all I just know it was a handgun 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:42.080 and it was given to astronauts. But wait, says everybody 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:47.520 who knows about physics and space and the lack of gravity. Uh, 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:52.080 wouldn't a handgun be a cartoonishly stupid thing to have 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.439 in space? Well? Look, man, you don't know what you're 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.280 gonna find on the Moon, you know, I mean, there 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.879 could be some crazy stuff going on up there. Or 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:03.399 if you're a cosmonaut, uh, when you land wherever the 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.399 heck you land, if you make it. Um, it's sure 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:11.080 would suck to go to space and to return from 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.000 space and to be eaten by a tiger or a bear. Yeah, 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.320 a polar BEARA just goes hey, buddy, welcome back. That's 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.600 that would be a terrible welcoming party for a nut orbit. Yeah, 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.960 the uh so it is true that cosmonauts did have 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:29.080 conventional handguns, but these were not for space use. These 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.520 were not four games of Russian Roulette. These were not, 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.919 uh for moments when the s hits the f and 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.359 things get super real on a space station. Or maybe 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:41.720 you know, I mean, maybe if you're up there and 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.879 one guy goes a little nuts and decides he's gonna 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.639 erect the entire thing because it's it's a tough mental 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.960 state to be in claustrophobic. So I think maybe maybe 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.840 there was some some scientists who said, maybe we should 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.800 have a plan in place just in case one person 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.919 goes eight nuts. There's no way you could shoot a 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:06.960 gun inside have a habitat. Yeah, you're right, You're absolutely right. 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.000 I mean, I guess you could go wild with it 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.119 and take everybody. I wonder if there wasn't a hunting 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.960 knife where some kind of knife involved as well. I 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.000 haven't done any research, we don't know. I'm sure there's 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.880 something like a survival kid included. Um. Sorry, I didn't 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:23.520 mean to go and don't apologize me. It's a good question. 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.159 Maybe one of our listeners, maybe you can write in 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.840 and let us know about your time as a cosmonaut 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.240 if you are allowed to. UM. Another thing though, that 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.200 this is also a Russian thing, mispronouncing this map. But 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:41.200 the Salute three had a cannon on it, a twenty 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:47.879 three millimeter cannon, and it shot satellites. Apparently that's still classified. 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.600 And speaking of shooting satellites, one of the other big 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.520 technologies we have to talk about is UH satellite killing. 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.679 So a weird thing happened in two thousand seven. China 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.920 shot down one of their obsolete satellites and they said 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:08.320 we did this as a environmental thing or testing thing, 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:14.640 which didn't really make sense because satellites contained some toxic elements. Um. 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:19.200 It was largely seen as a thinly veiled demonstration of 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:25.000 UM military prowess. And the United States, of course, is 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.880 not by any means and innocent in the woods here, 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.080 because the US also shot down satellites. Right yeah, back 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:33.920 in the eighties, they used the brand new F fifteen 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.320 to UH to shoot down one because it could it 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.040 could travel at heights that were insane at the time. 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:44.919 Um that nobody thought an airplane and aircraft like that 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.320 would be able to fly. And again just kind of Uh, well, 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.000 what's up? Yeah, I could do this. Yeah. Um. Then 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.040 they did it again in two thousand and eight, and 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:55.480 many people thought that was kind of an answer to 0:21:55.560 --> 0:22:00.399 the two thousand seven China incident. I'm one of the people, 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.120 by the way. Well yeah, I mean if you if 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.360 you watch the news and you look at things like that, 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.120 you notice that it's posturing. There's a ton of posturing 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:10.720 that happens. Posturing is a perfect word. There's a lot 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.920 of bro do you even space and going on? Um. Alright, 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.440 so this brings us wait, wait, sorry, Ben, I want 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.639 to go back just to briefly talk about the Space 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.400 Wars program. Where the so called space Wars program, because 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.040 that kind of gives us a little background about UM, 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.160 especially the satellite killer technology that we put up there. 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.680 What is the space Wars program, Well, it's it's the 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:39.000 Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, which was put together will essentially 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.960 by a speech that Ronald Reagan gave in March on 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:46.080 March twenty three, nine three, the year in which I 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.080 was born, Ben, and he basically was trying to find 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.800 a way to get out of the mutual assured destruction 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:58.680 kind of the pattern that we were in UM and 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.679 because that was largely based on offense, the idea that 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:04.879 we're gonna have so many nukes. If you knuc us May, 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:07.480 we're gonna crap out of you, and and the Soviet 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.040 Union in the United States were both kind of again 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:12.720 posturing in this manner. He thought, well, what if there's 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:16.200 a way, And probably a lot of his advisers thought, 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.080 let's just put that there. Uh, what if we could 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:25.439 just shoot down any intercontinental ballistic missile that came our way? Okay, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:29.240 so what if we could just build some sort of 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:32.520 net for lack of a better word, that could knock 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.520 out any I C B M launch toward us. Yeah, 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:39.320 And it made a lot of people angry. Obviously, the 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:43.399 Soviet Union was a little upset about it, um, you know, 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:46.320 and it got a ton of criticism as well because 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:50.639 of the amount of tech and the high tech that 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:53.040 we would need to be able to do something like this, 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:58.439 And it was basically a money pit for a long time. UM. 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:02.000 And it changed names a couple of times. I know, 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:05.200 George H. W. George H. W. Bush changed the name, 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:07.840 and then Bill Clinton again changed the name, and and 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:10.040 really they changed the focus a bunch of different times. 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:14.960 But under this program there were some crazy weaponry that 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:18.280 was at least fought up to go up into space. 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:22.199 What there were there were X ray lasers, there were 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:25.720 chemical lasers again attached the idea would you would be 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:27.760 you would attach it to some kind of satellite that 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:30.960