---------- From: Trei, Peter Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 3:05 PM To: 'Ray Dillinger' Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net Subject: RE: lawyer physics (was taxing satellites)

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---------- From: Ray Dillinger[SMTP:bear@sonic.net] Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 2:36 PM Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net Subject: Re: lawyer physics (was taxing satellites)

On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Dynamite Bob wrote: <quoting someone who is not participating in this discussion>

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"The property in question here is geostationary," said Larry Hoenig, a San Francisco attorney representing Hughes Electronics. "Geostationary satellites sit above the equator in a fixed position; they do not rotate around the Earth. So the satellites we're talking about here are not movable property."

Actually, there's a curious legal precedent which might help the satellite holders. One of the NASA probes (perhaps the atmospheric probe to Jupiter? Did we have a Venus probe?) had an instrument window made of diamond. The fairly large diamond used drew considerable import duty when it was brought into the US, but that duty was returned after the launch, since the diamond had been 're-exported'. This seems to my IANAL logic to set a precedent that an asset in space is not in the US.

...you can find anything on the net if you choose to look.... This was the Pionner Venus Orbiter, built by Hughes and launched in 1978. http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/diamond.txt ----------------- FROM: "Dr. Mark W. Lund" <mlund@moxtek.com> SUBJECT: Re: Who makes big diamond windows? DATE: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 17:11:44 -0600 ORGANIZATION: MOXTEK, Inc. NEWSGROUPS: sci.optics Nelson Wallace wrote:

"Big" meaning around 1 inch diameter, say 0.1" thick. Regards, Nelson Wallace

Wow, you TRW-government-contracting-no-holds-barred- success-at-any-cost-if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it guys have all the fun. Hughes Aircraft bought the diamond window on the Venus probe nephelometer from DeBeers. I remember that it was suggested to the principle investigator that he could save a lot of money if he used two smaller windows, but he was worried that they might not be the same temperature, so he splurged. I also remember that when the probe landed on Venus the US Customs people refunded the customs duty, since the diamond had been re-exported. ------------------------------------