lawyer physics (was taxing satellites)

[Phillip H. Zakas]

you know one of the things i'd like to do is go into the waste removal
business in orbit.  lots of junk up there...would like to launch a satellite
with a long finger attached to it and poke stuff out of orbit.  the "nudge".
who'd pay?  it would be quite an unfornate event if a satellite were
mistaken as a piece of debris...or if debris suddenly appeared in a launch
window ;)

phillip


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-cypherpunks at Algebra.COM
> [mailto:owner-cypherpunks at Algebra.COM]On Behalf Of Trei, Peter
> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 3:24 PM
> To: 'Ray Dillinger'
> Cc: cypherpunks at cyberpass.net
> Subject: RE: lawyer physics (was taxing satellites)
>
>
>
> > ----------
> > From: 	Trei, Peter
> > Sent: 	Tuesday, July 10, 2001 3:05 PM
> > To: 	'Ray Dillinger'
> > Cc: 	cypherpunks at cyberpass.net
> > Subject: 	RE: lawyer physics (was taxing satellites)
> >
> >
> >
> > > ----------
> > > From: 	Ray Dillinger[SMTP:bear at sonic.net]
> > > Sent: 	Tuesday, July 10, 2001 2:36 PM
> > > Cc: 	cypherpunks at 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>
> > > >"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 at 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.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>