Space is the place for the next race...

Space is heating up - literally... so much so that there is just too much to say on this subject. As technology pushes for greater networking capacity for sensoring the environment, Space is the 'high ground' from which to monitor and control terrestrial movements. The containment of the physical body - as a way to manipulate biological-neural messages to the mind/thoughts - is a future scenario being played out with military forecasts. Of course, this is only the material side of events, yet the increased acceleration in many of these projects seems to suggest that disruptive shifts are on the horizon that need to be handled - each in our Way.

Here's a brief piece called The Missile Shield and the Race for Space Awareness that mentions:

Terrestrial radars need to be complemented by satellites to keep track of missile launches across the planet (so called “boost phase interceptors”, see “Missile defense, satellites and politics“, The Space Review) to ensure complete space awareness. The Chinese Space Agency tested an anti-satellite missile earlier this year (See “Pentagon says China’s anti-satellite test posed a threat to nations”, AP). The move towards a hot space war could be imminent. The official press release was the only information given from Chinese authorities. The secrecy surrounding space capabilities was recently challenged by French authorities when they discovered 20-30 unregistered US surveillance satellites. (See “French says ‘non’ to U.S. Disclosure of Secret Satellites”, Space.com).

Yet we should also consider the environmental monitoring benefits from the 'high ground' - BBCNews reports that The European Space Agency (Esa) has ordered the first bespoke spacecraft in its new global monitoring programme:

Sentinel 1 is the first Earth observation satellite to be built for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) project. Esa plans to launch five Sentinel spacecraft to track changes in the land, oceans, weather and climate. A 229m euro (£155m) contract for the design and development of Sentinel 1 was signed at the Paris Air Show....

...The satellite's capability for rapid mapping will be vital after natural disasters, when emergency services need to identify quickly whether roads still exist and villages are still intact. It will also watch over the marine environment, mapping oil spills and changes in sea ice.

Read the full story at 'Contract signed on Earth observer'