Let's play "Space Advocacy Bingo!"

[jeriendhal]

Unrepentantedly ripped off from this thread at james_nicoll's LJ.

Mark off the space on your card when you hear:

Lunar Helium-3
Solar Power Satellites
Zero Gravity Manufacturing
Platinum Group Metals
Darwin in Spaaaaace (Evolutionary Imperative to Explore)
The Analogy with Columbus
Space Race II, Yellow Peril Boogaloo
Obama Killed the Shuttle!
Loss of Will
Beancounters
Demonizing Famous Space Skeptics (Proxmire/Mondale/Van Allen/Park etc.)
Free Enterprise to the Rescue
The Sun's Going to Burn out in Only Four Billion Years, Better Hurry
The Space Program Gave Us Fire (Spinoffs)
Airbreathing Launchers
Orion (Nuclear Pulse Rockets)
Inspiring Children
Limits to Growth on Earth
That Asteroid is Worth $10 Trillion!
Science Fiction Used as Justification for Real Life Actions
We Haven't Had Enough Fatalities in the Space Program Yet (so we're not going fast enough!)
Economies of Scale Will Bring Launch Costs Down
Space Industry Doesn't Pollute, so We're the Real Environmentalists Here
Rods From God
They laughed at Columbus
If Only NASA would do better PR
$ASTRONAUT says this is the only way
Nixon killed Apollo
Manifest Destiny in Spaaaaace!
It's just like opening the West (The trans-continental railroad fallacy.)

Double points if you add a supporting argument from Jerry Pournelle in any context.

Comments

[siderea]

Waitwaitwait, I know all these but "Rods From God". What's that?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

The theory is that you launch a telephone pole sized satellite into orbit, made primarily of some heavy, dense material like tungsten. When someone who annoys you masses their forces, you fire a kicker motor and send the pole down travelling to hit the ground at orbital velocities, like a directed asteroid strike. All the power of a nuclear bomb without all the messy fallout.

It's one Jerry Pournelle's pet concepts. Problems with correctly targeting something at terminal velocities, or for that matter why launching something that heavy into orbit is supposedly cheaper than an airstrike were handled by fairies not adequately explained.