Short Takes – 6-17-24

Leadership: Corruption Cripples The Russian Military. StrategyPage.com article. Pull quote: “The recent arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment of senior officials who were corrupt, or too obviously corrupt, has sent a message to all senior officials in jobs giving them access to the swollen defense budget that is now 6.7 percent of GDP. Before the invasion it was 3.6 percent. Putin thought the invasion would quickly overthrow the Ukrainian government. That did not happen and the costs of that war are more than Russia can afford. This is nothing new, it was decades of spending 15 percent of GDP on defense, and tolerating a lot of corruption by senior officials, that caused the Soviet Union to collapse in 1991. Many Russian economists and bankers believe another economic collapse, similar to what destroyed the Soviet Union, is possible unless the increased defense spending is restrained along with the growing corruption.”

Prospects for orbital data centers. SpaceReview.com article. Pull quote: “Terrestrial high-performance compute is heavy, primarily because of liquid thermal control systems. These need to be optimized. A continued reduction in space launch costs, coupled with advances in lightweight power and thermal management solutions, will be the key factors to watch in making orbital data centers practical.” Robot maintenance or people in space?

Power And Tension: The Cyber Security Problems of Military Electrification. WarOnTheRocks.com article. Not just about ‘electric vehicles’ but also about connected vehicles. Pull quote: “The challenge for the defender, however, is to set the bar high enough from the outset to restrict the adversary’s freedom of maneuver as much as possible. As militaries find themselves in the global planning phase of electrification, now is the time to meaningfully consider the cyber security of future military vehicles.”

This startup wants to find out if humans can have babies in space. TechnologyReview.com article. A tad bit of a click-bait headline. Pull quote: “But experiments on reproduction do not necessarily need to involve human samples. Jeffrey Alberts wants to see several generations of animals like rats be born in space, live their entire lives there, and reproduce. Such experiments have never been performed and would be the definitive test of whether there are any multigenerational effects of life in space—an outstanding question highlighted by the National Academies report.”

First tropical storm watch of the season issued for South Texas and Mexico. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “A coastal flood watch was also issued for the entire Texas coast, as was an advisory in Louisiana and Mississippi. Forecasters noted that coastal Texas cities could see between 8-12 inches of rain this week, while parts of northern Mexico could see multiple feet.”