From: utzoo!decvax!cca!Jim@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.space Title: Re: Brazil in Space Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2056 Posted: Mon Jul 12 17:33:49 1982 Received: Tue Jul 13 09:41:36 1982 Subject: Brazil in Space From: Gail ZachariasIndeed, why would they conceivably want to do something on their own if they can be dependent on us instead! Indeed, why would they? For commercial transport they should depend upon us (or rather hopefully US companies) just as people do for most high tech services. The only real justification for having an independent capability, especially one developed at a cost of billions of dollars, thousands of man-years of scarce scientists and engineers, and decades behind other nations, is for military reasons (national pride does NOT justify such a fantastic outlay - a smaller one dedicated to joint missions with the US or the USSR is another matter of course). In particular such technology can be used for ICBM development. Given that Brazil is ruled byy a military government, I really doubt they are going to expend all those resources and expect no new militaryy capabilities in return. Jim PS note that the same can be said of the US auto and steel industries, although here at least we make no bones that a major reason for having such large domestic capacity is to supply the military in times of crisis. I object to Brazil's blatant falsehoods about "peaceful" uses of space (along with India's about "peaceful" atomic "devices"), since misinformation is something that should be reduced whenever possible. -------