Contact Lost? Marbles Maybe! I am no Rocket-Scientist

 Commentary by Brian Carrillo – Armchair Space Expert and High Speed Train Observer. Editor but not Chief of SST

I am no rocket scientist but am I the only one who is confused as to why we keep spending billions of taxpayer dollars on these experimental planes, rockets and Mars rovers?  Yeah, I know – calculators, computers, toothpaste, TV Dinners – none of these great discoveries would have never been possible were it not for Man’s unyielding quest for aliens and space exploration. I get that. But why are we not outraged when we hear about these satellites that disappear, or rovers that go MIA or Supersonic gliders that fizzle out into the Pacific? Can we really afford these blunders when right here on Earth we have only explored less than 5% of the earth’s Oceans and most of us sit in traffic all day because our freeways are so messed up? What would we discover if we invested more on high speed rail and mag-lev technologies rather than a bunch of experiments  in outer space?

As you may know, the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 was launched Thursday atop a rocket, successfully separating from the booster and entered the mission’s glide phase before being lost after the launch from  Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. Where did it go? Alien Abduction perhaps?

The agency says telemetry was  lost, but released no details. What would happen if we had a High Speed Bullet Train disappear inside a tunnel or underpass? The story would end up on the History Channel that’s what!

But, believe it or not this is not the first time one of these high speed supersonic flying machines disappeared after launch.  In April 2010 the US Air Force together with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) test-launched a glider, but lost contact with it almost immediately. So now, over a year later, they’ve built another and are giving it a second go with the same results. Really?

I can’t imagine how expensive these bad-boys cost – and then to have it fall into the ocean – no passengers – no pictures – no extreme crashing videos on Youtube – WTH!  There’s no exact figures released on the cost behind the Falcon, but according to my intense online research (Wikepedia)  Henry F. Cooper, who was the Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) under President Reagan, said the space plane projects swallowed $4 billion in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s – and this does not include the Space Shuttle,” and that the Falcon was “allocated a US$170 million for budget year 2008. That’s a whole lot of infrastructure!

Again, I am here not to argue against sending monkeys to Jupiter or developing missiles that can wipe out an entire band of terrorist from space in favor of developing High Speed Rail in the U.S. , that would be insane. I am not insane – monomaniacal about Super Speed Trains maybe but not insane. We really do need to send probes to the outermost regions of our solar system – have you seen how expensive land is in California? And those drones they are flying over Afghanistan would never have been possible if we did not send men to the Moon. What I am saying is we need to wake up America and get behind the development of high speed trains not so much for the profits we can someday make but rather because high speed rail and transportation is good for America. (Trains can move people faster and better and more efficiently then busses and planes! Jobs will also be created when we build the trains and the rails systems).

Stop  screwing up these experiments you Bands of nutty Rocket Scientist, you are supposed to be better than that. We all know that rocket scientist are smart.  I am no Braniac myself but please get the experiments right the first time using those cool pocket calculators and computers that are available because of the trillions spent on sending man to space. Let’s take that money to build bridges and highways and super speed trains and rail  right here in America. And with the change left over, let’s build cool submarines that can really explore the Ocean! Something good will have to come out of that.

Just my opinion

Brian Carrillo

Hoo!  Hoo!