**Weaponization/Space Race
The Pentagon will use nuclear rockets for space weaponization
GNAWNPS 5 (Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, 5/31/5, http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/space_statement.htm) JPG
The Pentagon has long maintained they need nuclear reactors in order to provide the enormous power required for weapons in space. In a Congressional study entitled Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years it was reported that "Nuclear reactors thus remain the only know long-lived, compact source able to supply military forces with electric power...Larger versions could meet multimegawatt needs of space-based lasers....Nuclear reactors must support major bases on the moon..." In an article printed in the Idaho Statesman on April 20, 1992 military officials stated "The Air Force is not developing [the nuclear rocket] for space exploration. They're looking at it to deliver payloads to space." Considering that NASA says all of their space missions will now be "dual use," meaning every mission will be both military and civilian at the same time, it is important to ask what the military application of the Project Prometheus will be.
Nuclear rockets are a Trojan horse for space militarization
Gagnon 3 (Bruce, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space group, 1/27/3, http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclearspace-03b.html) JPG
Critics of NASA have long stated that in addition to potential health concerns from radiation exposure, the NASA space nukes initiative represents the Bush administration's covert move to develop power systems for space-based weapons such as lasers on satellites. The military has often stated that their planned lasers in space will require enormous power projection capability and that nuclear reactors in orbit are the only practical way of providing such power. The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space maintains that just like missile defense is a Trojan horse for the Pentagon's real agenda for control and domination of space, NASA's nuclear rocket is a Trojan horse for the militarization of space. NASA's new chief, former Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe said soon after Bush appointed him to head the space agency that, "I don't think we have a choice, I think it's imperative that we have a more direct association between the Defense Department and NASA. Technology has taken us to a point where you really can't differentiate between that which is purely military in application and those capabilities which are civil and commercial in nature."
Nuclear propulsion guarantees space weaponization – civilian sector will be coopted by the military
Grossman 4 (Karl, Journalism prof @ the State U of NY and author of "Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed To Know About Nuclear Power”, Earth First Journal, March-April 2004, http://westgatehouse.com/art154.html) JPG
Space nuclear power also has boosters among the military, which has been considering space-based weapons--devices that need substantial amounts of power. Additionally, the military has been interested in nuclear-powered rockets. In the late 1980s, an earlier series of nuclear rocket projects was first revived with Project Timberwind, a program to build atomic rockets to loft heavy Star Wars equipment and also for trips to Mars. This kind of "dual use" now runs through all NASA operations, says Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. "Right after Bush swore the new NASA chief into office, O'Keefe told the nation that from now on every mission would be dual use. By that he meant that every mission would carry military and civilian payloads at the same time. This is further evidence that the space program has been taken over by the Pentagon." "Space is viewed today," says Gagnon, "as open territory to be seized for eventual corporate profit" and for US military control. Gagnon speaks of proposals to "mine the sky"--to extract minerals from celestial bodies, with the moon considered a prime source for rare Helium-3. This elemental substance would be brought back to Earth to fuel supposedly cleaner fusion-power reactors. Gagnon says that the US military wants to establish bases in space, including on the moon, to protect these operations and to control the "shipping lanes of the future." "The Bush space plan will be enormously expensive, dangerous and will create unnecessary conflict as it expands nuclear power and weapons into space," notes Gagnon, "all disguised as the noble effort to hunt for the 'origins of life'."
Nukes = Weaponization – Star Wars
Star wars is contingent upon nuclear propulsion
Grossman 97 (Karl, Journalism prof @ the State U of NY and author of "Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed To Know About Nuclear Power”, 2/3/97, http://www.flybynews.com/archives/karl/kg9105we.htm) JPG
Star Wars is contingent on the launching of 100 orbiting battle platforms, each with a large nuclear reactor to provide power for its laser weapons, hypervelocity guns and particle beams. GE is now busy manufacturing what is to be the main Star Wars space reactor, the SP-100. In coming days, the Synthesis Group, a panel established last year (1990) by NASA and the White House, is expected to recommend nuclear-powered rockets for the manned Moon-Mars missions proposed by President George Bush. And the Pentagon, amid great secrecy to avoid public objections (not for national defense reasons) is developing a nuclear-propelled rocket to haul Star Wars weaponry into space. To spread radioactivity, a nuclear-propelled rocket need not crash back to Earth. As they fly, these rockets would inevitably trail clouds of radioactivity in their exhaust. A flight test in space above Antarctica is being planned for the Star Wars nuclear rocket. It seems the location was chosen so that if there is a malfunction, the chief victims would be penguins. Unfortuntely, New Zealand also gets in the way. One U.S. government study says that the likelihood of the nuclear-powered rocket crashing into New Zealand is 1 in 2,325. This may sound like fairly good odds, but remember, NASA put the odds of a space shuttle crash at 1 in 100,000, before the Challenger exploded.
Nuclear propulsion would lead to Star Wars
Broad 91 (William, writer @ NYT, 4/3/91, http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/03/us/secret-nuclear-powered-rocket-being-developed-for-star-wars.html) JPG
In great secrecy, the Pentagon is developing a nuclear-powered rocket for hauling giant weapons and other military payloads into space as part of the "Star Wars" program. The goal is to build a special type of nuclear reactor that would power engines far more energetic than any rocket engines now in use, allowing very large and heavy payloads to be lofted high above the earth. The program was disclosed by the Federation of American Scientists, a private group based in Washington that has opposed the "Star Wars" anti-missile program and some uses of space reactors. The existence of the secret effort was confirmed by internal Government documents obtained by The New York Times.
NASA and the DoD are intertwined
Broad 91 (William, writer @ NYT, 4/3/91, http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/03/us/secret-nuclear-powered-rocket-being-developed-for-star-wars.html) JPG
While currently run by the Defense Department, the effort is being quietly evaluated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which is considering nuclear reactors to power a manned mission to Mars.
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