Gen. Wesley Clark Makes Warp Drive Development A Party Plank
Announcements Tuesday, September 30, 2003 . This is a SciScoop post by Ricky James
Gary Melnick, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told the newssite Clark’s faith in the possibility of faster-than-light, or FTL, travel was “probably based more on his imagination than on physics.”
Evidence suggests FTL travel is impossible, Melnick said.
“Even if Clark becomes president, I doubt it would be within his powers to repeal the powers of physics,” Melnick told Wired.
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5 Responses to Gen. Wesley Clark Makes Warp Drive Development A Party Plank
Sylvia Engdahl
October 1st, 2003 at 1:26 am
I’m happy to see that at least one candidate has faith in a spacefaring future for humankind, but I wish he’d picked a goal that could be achieved within the next 50 years! We do indeed need to set goals, and he wasted the opportunity to suggest a real one–or else he was careful to pick something that he can’t be criticized for failing to make progress toward, in case he does become president.
apsmith
October 1st, 2003 at 6:16 am
Dennis Kucinich is one of the Democratic co-sponsors of H.R. 3057, the Space Exploration Act of 2003. Too bad he has no chance of getting elected. Bob Graham, the senator and presidential candidate, has also been a past supporter of expanding space enterprise. There’s some talk of Graham for VP if Howard Dean gets the nomination – they seem to get along well.
I’m not aware of any pro-space comments from the other candidates though (Kerry has made some pro-science comments, similar to the latter part of Clark’s speech above).
Anonymous
October 1st, 2003 at 8:16 am
How refreshing to have a candidate who can be candid with a group of strangers about his ability to dream big in regard to science. Once upon a time ago, everything in Buck Rogers was only someone’s dream. I’d much rather have a president who uses his vision to advance science, than one who can only see his way to use science to make pre-emptive war, bases on misinformation.
Anonymous
October 1st, 2003 at 9:32 am
Clark is saying we need to dream and think big. It is what our country was founded on. There were those, some of them well respected scientists, that said we would never break the sound barrier. But, those that dared to dream and think big did it. He is not saying that is one of his initiatives, but we need to advance forward toward that point. IMO, he is saying you don’t get anywhere by saying “It can’t be done.”
Anonymous
October 1st, 2003 at 2:46 pm
50 years is a long time. With our technology in the early 60s, a trip to the moon was in the same decade was a large step.