mojo
02-27-2008, 05:25 PM
A post i made in "The question for John" thread got me to thinking. Dangerous i know. :)
Many science fiction authors have worked in either miltary or space related industry's. Below are just a few that i was able to dig up quickly. Many of their subjects/story's can be directly related to a lot of the conspiratorial subjects that John speaks about.
Do these guy's know something the rest of us don't due to them working in close proximity to these agency's and their involvement in top secret projects.
Food for thought.
Jerry Pournelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle)
Pournelle was an intellectual protege of Russell Kirk (Kenneth C. Cole, Pournelle's mentor at the University of Washington, was co-founder with Kirk of Modern Age) and Stefan T. Possony with whom Pournelle wrote numerous publications including The Strategy of Technology, onetime textbook at the United States Military Academy (West Point) and the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs). His work in the aerospace industry includes editing Project 75, a 1964 study of 1975 defense requirements. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division, and was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute.
Robert Forward (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Forward)
He earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1965, for the development of a bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation. He then went to work at the research labs of Hughes Aircraft, where he continued his research on gravity measurement and received 18 patents. He took early retirement in 1987, to focus on his fiction writing and consulting for such clients as NASA and the U.S. Air Force. In 1994, he co-founded the company Tethers Unlimited, Inc., where he served as Chief Scientist and Chairman until 2002.
Gregory Benford (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/columbia/columbia.html#benford)
GREGORY BENFORD is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, a long-time advisor to NASA, and a novelist. His books include Timescape and The Martian Race.
Charles Sheffield (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E7D71431F93AA35752C1A9649C8B 63)
Dr. Sheffield, a native of Britain, had a doctorate in physics from American University. He was a consultant to NASA and later the chief scientist of the Earth Satellite Corporation, a Washington-based company specializing in natural-resource management.
Geoffrey Landis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_A._Landis)
Landis holds undergraduate degrees in physics and electrical engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in solid-state physics from Brown University. He works for the NASA John Glenn Research Center, where he does research on Mars missions, solar energy[1], and advanced concepts for interstellar propulsion. He holds seven patents [2], and has published more than 300 scientific papers[3] in the fields of astronautics and photovoltaics. He was a member of the Rover team on the Mars Pathfinder mission, and is a member of the science team on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission. In 2005-2006, he was the Ronald E. McNair Visiting Professor of Astronautics at MIT.
Ben Bova (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bova)
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute
Project Vanguard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard)
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket as the launch vehicle.
In response to the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. restarted the Explorer program, which had been proposed earlier by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ABMA built Explorer 1 in 84 days and launched it on January 31, 1958. Before work was completed, however, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957. Meanwhile the spectacular televised failure of Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957 deepened American dismay over the country's position in the Space Race.
On March 17, 1958, Vanguard 1 became the second artificial satellite successfully placed in Earth orbit by the United States. It was the first solar-powered satellite. Just 152 mm (6 in) in diameter and weighing just 1.4 kg (3 lb), Vanguard I was described by then-Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as, "The grapefruit satellite."[1]
Vanguard 1 is the oldest artificial satellite still in space. Vanguard's predecessors, Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 and Explorer 1 have fallen out of orbit.
There are any number of other well known and less well known science fiction authors who have worked directly for or as consultants for NASA and other military establishments.
In fact many SF authors have successfully predicted many technological advances.
Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan some of the better known of those.
Coincidence?
What do you think?
mojo
Dont know how i could have forgotten Gentry Lee.
B. Gentry. Lee (http://www.lamar.edu/newsevents/articles/221_5671.htm)
B. Gentry Lee, chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif
........snip........
Lee is responsible for the engineering integrity of all the robotic planetary missions managed by JPL, including engineering oversight of historical twin rover missions to Mars and the implementation of NASA’s Deep Impact and Stardust missions.
Previously, Lee was chief engineer for the Galileo project and, after working in a variety of positions on the Viking project, was director of Science Analysis and Mission Planning during the Viking operations activities. As mankind’s first successful landings on another planet, the two historic Viking missions touched down on Mars in the summer of 1976. The Galileo Mission explored Jupiter with both an atmospheric probe and an orbiter that mapped the major Jovian satellites during a decade of operations.
Many science fiction authors have worked in either miltary or space related industry's. Below are just a few that i was able to dig up quickly. Many of their subjects/story's can be directly related to a lot of the conspiratorial subjects that John speaks about.
Do these guy's know something the rest of us don't due to them working in close proximity to these agency's and their involvement in top secret projects.
Food for thought.
Jerry Pournelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle)
Pournelle was an intellectual protege of Russell Kirk (Kenneth C. Cole, Pournelle's mentor at the University of Washington, was co-founder with Kirk of Modern Age) and Stefan T. Possony with whom Pournelle wrote numerous publications including The Strategy of Technology, onetime textbook at the United States Military Academy (West Point) and the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs). His work in the aerospace industry includes editing Project 75, a 1964 study of 1975 defense requirements. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division, and was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute.
Robert Forward (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Forward)
He earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1965, for the development of a bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation. He then went to work at the research labs of Hughes Aircraft, where he continued his research on gravity measurement and received 18 patents. He took early retirement in 1987, to focus on his fiction writing and consulting for such clients as NASA and the U.S. Air Force. In 1994, he co-founded the company Tethers Unlimited, Inc., where he served as Chief Scientist and Chairman until 2002.
Gregory Benford (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/columbia/columbia.html#benford)
GREGORY BENFORD is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, a long-time advisor to NASA, and a novelist. His books include Timescape and The Martian Race.
Charles Sheffield (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E7D71431F93AA35752C1A9649C8B 63)
Dr. Sheffield, a native of Britain, had a doctorate in physics from American University. He was a consultant to NASA and later the chief scientist of the Earth Satellite Corporation, a Washington-based company specializing in natural-resource management.
Geoffrey Landis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_A._Landis)
Landis holds undergraduate degrees in physics and electrical engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in solid-state physics from Brown University. He works for the NASA John Glenn Research Center, where he does research on Mars missions, solar energy[1], and advanced concepts for interstellar propulsion. He holds seven patents [2], and has published more than 300 scientific papers[3] in the fields of astronautics and photovoltaics. He was a member of the Rover team on the Mars Pathfinder mission, and is a member of the science team on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission. In 2005-2006, he was the Ronald E. McNair Visiting Professor of Astronautics at MIT.
Ben Bova (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bova)
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute
Project Vanguard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard)
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket as the launch vehicle.
In response to the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. restarted the Explorer program, which had been proposed earlier by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ABMA built Explorer 1 in 84 days and launched it on January 31, 1958. Before work was completed, however, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957. Meanwhile the spectacular televised failure of Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957 deepened American dismay over the country's position in the Space Race.
On March 17, 1958, Vanguard 1 became the second artificial satellite successfully placed in Earth orbit by the United States. It was the first solar-powered satellite. Just 152 mm (6 in) in diameter and weighing just 1.4 kg (3 lb), Vanguard I was described by then-Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as, "The grapefruit satellite."[1]
Vanguard 1 is the oldest artificial satellite still in space. Vanguard's predecessors, Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 and Explorer 1 have fallen out of orbit.
There are any number of other well known and less well known science fiction authors who have worked directly for or as consultants for NASA and other military establishments.
In fact many SF authors have successfully predicted many technological advances.
Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan some of the better known of those.
Coincidence?
What do you think?
mojo
Dont know how i could have forgotten Gentry Lee.
B. Gentry. Lee (http://www.lamar.edu/newsevents/articles/221_5671.htm)
B. Gentry Lee, chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif
........snip........
Lee is responsible for the engineering integrity of all the robotic planetary missions managed by JPL, including engineering oversight of historical twin rover missions to Mars and the implementation of NASA’s Deep Impact and Stardust missions.
Previously, Lee was chief engineer for the Galileo project and, after working in a variety of positions on the Viking project, was director of Science Analysis and Mission Planning during the Viking operations activities. As mankind’s first successful landings on another planet, the two historic Viking missions touched down on Mars in the summer of 1976. The Galileo Mission explored Jupiter with both an atmospheric probe and an orbiter that mapped the major Jovian satellites during a decade of operations.