Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, July 8, 1986
Opinion
Joint prevention effort only solution to orbital littei
Mankind has a
tunny way of
dealing with natu-
r a 1 resources.
When we find
ourselves with an
abundance of a
resource, we
squander it away.
Just for fun we
shot the buffalo Loren Steffy
into near-extinc-
tion. We pollute and abuse the reserves
of nature until we suddenly realize that
they’re about to run out, then we franti
cally try to conserve what little remains.
Litter is one of our greatest environ
mental abuses. It should be the easiest to
control, but apathy usually supersedes
prevention -— perhaps because it's easy
to say someone else 'will pick it up, or
perhaps because it’s hard to belieVe that
one gum wrapper is going to bring
about ecological doom for the entire
planet. In short, littering is a manifesta
tion of laziness — it’s just too much trou
ble to look for the nearest trash can.
Now our disregard for litter is being
displaced to other areas of the globe —
and beyond. Specifically, Earth orbit.
The President’s National Commission
on Space (NCS) claims there are thou
sands of objects with millions of pounds
of collective mass that have been blasted
into a geosychronous orbit around the
Earth. A recent NCS report stated that
“the space debris population remains
constant at approximately 5,000 pieces
large enough to be tracked from Earth.”
This doesn’t account for the thousands
of tiny particles that zip around our
planet unnoticed.
Space litter represents a grave con
cern, because unlike litter on Earth,
space junk causes direct damage to sa
tellites and other property in orbit.
These unwanted chunks travel at speeds
of 7,000 to 17,000 mph. Particle colli
sions often generate shock waves that
break the sound barrier, shattering the
objects into millions of smaller pieces,
which go on to bombard still other parti
cles and satellites.
Cleaning up our mess in the heavens
has so far been cost prohibitive and un
necessary. But the more satellites get
damaged by micrometeor impacts, the
more scientists realize the need for a gi
ant dust pan in the sky.
The United States is not the only
space-faring nation that doesn’t keep its
orbit tidy. Picking up after ourselves is
going to require cooperation from any
nation participating in the space race.
Recently, the United States and the So
viet Union, the principal perpetrators of
celestial clutter, have been testing anti
satellite weaponry, which only adds to
the orbital debris.
Many ideas have been proposed for
dealing with the problem. Orbital vac
uum cleaners are still a long way off, but
trash cans in space may not be.
There are two stable zones along the
geosychronous orbit where satellites
tend not to drift off course.The propo
sal most popular with scientists con
cerned about cleaning up Earth orbit is
to round up old satellites and other size
able pieces of junk and corral it into
these two zones.
When the orbital trash dumpsters be
come full, the junk would be collected
and hauled off. After all, a few billion
miles away is the largest trash incinera
tor known to man.
Costs would be relatively low because
a retrieving spacecraft would not have
to search the entire orbit looking for
specific pieces of debris. If the cleanup
effort was coordinated on an interna
tional scale, nations could take turns re
trieving all waste, instead of each coun
try picking up just its own mess. Such an
intergalactic sanitation program at first
might cost more than the satellites that
would be saved. But the long-term re
sults could mean a substantial savings on
satellite repair.
Exactly what should be donewiiti:
space litter after its collected isn’t cl
yet. But scientists have some time
work out a viable solution before;
two zones fill up. With increasingtei
nology and the availability (despite
current Challenger setback) of reust
ble spacecraft, scientists feel certaintl
a solution is not far off.
As with litter on Earth, theonlyfei
ble and cost-efficient solution is preit
tion. If orbital dump sites are est
fished, space-faring nations mt
assume responsibility for theirjunkt
make a coordinated effort to “pitchit
Like the irresponsible motori!
space-goers must learn to hold iIk
trash until the nearest convenientrett
tacle can be found. Just becauseinspi
no oe can hear you hoot doesn’t me
we shouldn’t give one.
Loren Steffy is a senior journalisms
jor and the Opinion Page editor h
The Battalion.
Without concrete solutionss,
U.S will become disillusioned
The president
won a noisy
moral victory in
the House when
he turn e d i t
around on the
question of aid to
the Contras. He
is helped both as
chief foreign-
policy maker and
as the dominant
William F.
JSuckle^Jr
figure in domestic policy. But as the Ni
caraguan vote assumes importance, so
does it invite danger. The polls indicate
that the level of enthusiasm for Nicara
guan aid has not increased in the three
months during which Reagan turned
Congress around oi> the subject. And
the reason for this is plain: We have not
charted a course for overthrowing the
Sandinista government.
Every single word uttered by Ronald
Reagan in his speech before the vote
could, as things are going, as well be ut
tered two years from now. He warned
that Nicaragua is, under the Sandinis-
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Michelle Powe, Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Scott Sutherland, City Editor
Kay Mallett, News Editor
Ken Sury, Sports Editor
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tas, engaged in totalitarianizing the
country. He is correct; and two years
from now it will be said of Nicaragua ei
ther that the totalitarianization contin
ues, or that it is completed. We do not
know what exactly it is that will mark the
day when the Sandinistas can say the op
position is gone: The People’s Republic
of Nicaragua is unified totally behind
the Sandinistas. But there is not much
that.the Contras, plus $70 million, can
do to arrest the trend that now prevails.
There are 3,000 Cuban military ad
visers in Nicaragua and an estimated
$600 million worth of war-making
material sent by the Soviet bloc. The Ni-
j caraguan military is by far the largest in
! Central America. The forces there, in
j short, are sufficient to contain, perhaps
| to overwhelm, the Contras.
It is the unhappy earmark of the cen
tury that the technology of suppression
exceeds in sophistication the technology
of resistance. That technology of sup
pression isn’t merely quantified by as
signing a dollar value to the weapons at
the disposal of the Sandinista army and
police. One needs to add, or rather to
multiply, the factor of will. If Somoza
had exercised the will-to-power the
Sandinistas show, he would never have
been overthrown. If Marcos had en
gaged in full-blooded totalitarian prac
tices, he would be reigning today.
Chiang Kai-shek, if he had imitated
Mao, would have died in Peking.
There is no way the Contras can over
throw the existing government. And a
year from now, what we are most likely
to be hearing about is feats of terrorism
initiated by the Contras. This Sandinista
mayor executed, that grenade bomb
that went off under a bus of schoolchil
dren.
Now, these are not the kind of data
designed to generate continuing Ameri
can enthusiasm for the ideal of enabling
a resistance movement to oust the Sand
inista government. But President Rea
gan declines to declare himself further.
He has not said that it is distinctly a U.S.
responsibility to see to it that the Sandi
nistas do not succeed in the way that
Castro succeeded in Cuba. To make
such a guarantee, he would need to ac
knowledge that there are circumstances
under which we would need to engage
our own military directly. But his fear of
saying this — because it would antago
nize the marginal congressmen — cor
respondingly aggravates the situation.
So long as the United States shrinks
from making the whole commitment,
the Sandinista government feels rela
tively secure.
If we cannot affect their strength, can
we keep the Sandinistas from becoming
stronger? Well, we can blockade their
shipping, searching vessels for instru
ments of aggression. But to do this
means protracted engagements with in
ternational protocols that provide for
freedom of the seas. Although we have
announced that we will no longer accept
the jurisdiction of the World Court on
matters involving our activities against
the Sandinistas, we are left justifiably
uncomfortable at the prospect of pro
tracted lawlessness under the aegis of
what goes by the name of international
law.
But even if we stopped the military
flow by sea, how are we going to prevent
the Cuban air transport fleet from fly
ing into Nicaragua the machinery of ag
gression? Are we going to shoot down
airplanes that take off from Havana,
headed for Managua?
We do not, in America, engage in
oblique military activity over a pro
longed period of time with any stamina.
It is inconsistent with the American tem
per to proceed at a fitful pace. We have,
after all, been doing this for five years:
It has been just about that long since we
turned around on the Sandinistas and
acknowledged that they were not at all
interested in introducing democracy to
Somozaland. And since then, the sun
has not set save on a day that sees the
Sandinistas stronger than the day be
fore. Never mind their ravaged econ
omy; the power is consolidating. Rea
gan, to the extent that he holds up the
present effort as the high-water mark of
our Central American policy, may be
riding for a great fall.
Copyright 1986, Universal Press Syndicate
Mail Call
Missing monument
EDITOR:
This is one letter that I hoped I would never have to write, but onethatl
feel is necessary.
I am the president of Chi Epsilon (XE), the National Honor Society for
Civil Engineers. In the fall semester of 1985, after four years of saving mone\
and volunteering hundreds of man hours to prepare a brass symbol of our
society, we were able to build a small monument to our University.
It was unveiled at the annual civil engineering department open house
and was shown as a model to other universities nationwide at our biannual
conclave. Through intensive lobbying at that meeting, we were able to win
the support of other universities to move the national headquarters of XE to
Texas A&M. Now we have no cause to celebrate the accomplishments of the [
last several years.
On the night of June 26 someone vandilized the monument. They broke
the brass symbol off of the top of its decorative concrete base and stole it.
I don’t know why this was done, or who did it. The University Police have
begun an investigation into the matter. My hope is that the symbol will be
recovered so we can repait or replace the monument as necessary.
If any of you GOOD AGS know anything at all about this situation, any
information that could aid the police in their investigation, please contact
Richard Galaviz at 845-2345. We don’t have sufficient funds in our treasury
to offer a reward, but hope that the Aggie Code of Honor will be an
incentive.
The symbol is solid brass, about 32 inches high by 14 inches wide and
weighs around 70 pounds. In the center of the symbol, the letter X and Eare
superimposed on one another.
Thank you for your help.
Alan D. Simpson
President Chi Epsilon
Dr. Eugene Marquis
FacultyAdvisor Chi Epsilon
Voicing 'petty criticisms'
EDITOR:
Though I do not like having titles attatched to my name, you may label
me, for convenience, “liberal.” And as a “liberal” I have many complaints
about the Ray-gun administration, and some of the more recent Supreme
Court decisions. In short, I sometimes feel as if I am living in the middleofa
“Leave it to Beaver” episode.
Yes, I fear destruction of our “enlightened society”: I fear the loss of legal;
control for the women of our country, I worry that people like Mark Ude,
who are unquestionably beyond reproach, will dictate to women under what :
conditions, if any, a woman may decide to abort her pregnancy, and so make
her womb truly the property of society.
I am afraid of the ignorance that inspires our “Supreme” Court to make
illegal the sexual habits of one out of every ten Americans. I do not know if
Ude has heard, but homosexuality is no longer considered deviant sexual
behavior by the psychological community. But of course, this is the same
community that often takes certain criminals away from justice — so that
people with Ude’s mindset are unable to respond, for instance, to murder
with murder.
And I am definitely afraid of a society that admires, on one hand, movies
like “Dirty Harry” or “Cobra,” and all of the violence upon which their
childish themes rely (which Ude equates to the popularity ofa “get-tough"
attitude towards crime), and on the other hand, denies expressions of
sexuality to the point of censuring education of the most basic information in
our public schools — as if this would make the very real problems of teen-age
pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases simply disappear!
But I suppose these are, as Ude would call them, “petty criticisms.” Wake
up Ude! We are not all conservative, white, pro-military, Christian,
homophobic males, who would deny the right of individuality to the world, )
and you are not living in the midst ofa Coca-Cola commercial!
Bill Sparks
English Major
History speaks
EDITOR:
Only a fool would dare contradict a Consensus of Experts:
“Christianity won’t get big.” (circa 100 AD)
“The sun revolves around the Earth.” (circa 1000 AD)
“The Earth is flat.” (circa 1491)
“Man will never fly.” (circa 1902)
“If we give Hitler the Rhineland, he’ll be satisfied.” (circa 1936)
“Man will never go to the moon.” (circa 1960)
“It will definitely be a Lakers/Celtics rematch in the NBA Finals.” (circa
1986).
“SDI is a dangerous fantasy.” (circa 1986)
Oh well, who is John Galt?
Adam D. Hatman
Class of’87
—'
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staFf reservesTKerigl 11
to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent
Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer.
—
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