Friday, May 11, 2007

How Scientology fucks with real Science

This is an example of how Scientology gets in the way of an innocents dream(at least two of my dreams), the space elevator and life extension. Keith Hanson is an American electrical and space engineer who is working on the space elevator(a true elevator to space; very cheap access to space) concept. He was convicted for "interfering with a religion", he demonstrated against Scientology, in California in 2001. He fled to Canada and became the first Scientology fugitive. He was trown in jail a few weeks ago because he came back to the USA for 3 court cases related to Scientology. Here you can find an interview with Hanson. He talks about scientology, the space elevator and solving the global energy problem with a giant space-based solar collector. I didn't have time to check the correctness of this article and how serious/reliable he is a scientist/engineer.
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7 comments:

  1. cybrbeast12 May, 2007 18:57

    Wow, I'm shocked, that's completely retarded. Interfering with a religion is a crime?
    Only in America...
    The land of the free..

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  2. Brian Dunbar12 May, 2007 21:24

    Only in America...

    Actually in California - anywhere else not so much. Federalism rocks.

    Good thing that progress does not depend on a single man. There are at least two private organizations dedicated to space elevators, Black Line Ascension and the outfit I work for, LiftPort.

    Brian Dunbar
    LiftPort

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  3. cybrbeast13 May, 2007 13:27

    You are doing a great job. I really hope this gets off the ground. I can't understand why NASA and ESA don't invest more in this technology. Is it too high-risk?

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  4. annom13 May, 2007 16:22

    Great, do you have any internship places at LiftPort? :)

    Related: Burt Rutan on TED Talks about innovations in space engineering; the goverment funded innovation stagnation and how the commercial industry can/will cause great innovations.

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  5. Brian Dunbar14 May, 2007 17:17

    Great, do you have any internship places at LiftPort? :

    We do and we don't .. that is we don't have a huge formal IBM-ish program but we do have interns in over the summer - it's very ad-hoc and, frankly, stressful and Michael can be quite fussy.

    If you need a lot of hand-holding and aren't self-directed, don't bother.

    On the flip side is that we do have some very specific goals and you can't just wander all over the map. Discipline is important.

    Write info at liftport dot com and ask.


    I can't understand why NASA and ESA don't invest more in this technology. Is it too high-risk?

    More like 'unproven'. It's like specing a rocket made out of aluminum before the material is more than a lab curiosity.

    NASA and ESA want to be able to have hardware they can fly now, not later after many many more tests.

    Which is, yes, frustrating because we think this is a promising endeavor. On the other hand it seems to allow room for a nimble private company to slip into the gaps and make it a go.

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  6. cybrbeast14 May, 2007 18:52

    Thank you for the extra info.
    I really hope your company succeeds and opens up a new era of space exploration and utilization.

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  7. annom14 May, 2007 19:39

    Thanks for your reply!

    Good luck with this interesting project! It's good to hear there are still people working on this idea.

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