The military has just decided to deny scientists data on incoming meteors in order to protect military secrets. Anyone who can’t see any problems with this arrangement, well done on never having seen a movie -ever. Oh, and get Michael Bay on the phone – we’ve got his next plot ready.
The Air Force’s Defense Support Program satellite network scans the globes for infra-red signatures (indicative of missile blasts and nuclear explosions) and incidentally picks up incredibly detailed information on all meteors which hit the planet. Something the military didn’t think was particularly interesting. They did at least send the occasional update to the Earth-watching scientific community, scraps of data they didn’t need, but a recent announcement makes it clear that there will be no more.
The most likely reason is an upgrade to the satellite defense network, with the top brass believing that any risk of revealing the capabilities of the new system is unacceptable. The worst thing is that it isn’t really secrecy that’s stopping the data transfer, but miserliness. It’s the work of moments to boil out any unwanted information revealed by records of meteor strikes, but with their hundred-billion dollar budget the USAF just doesn’t see the point in hiring someone to do it. That would be money with absolutely no ability to kill people, after all, and paltry little things like “using the most advanced satellite network in existence to further our understanding of the universe” isn’t going to blow anybody up either.
They’re literally throwing out incredible data because they can’t be bothered to keep it. This is everything that’s wrong with human ambition right here.
