Krafft Ehricke, one of the space pioneers and architect of much of the Apollo Project to land a man on the Moon, summarized his philosophy of astronautics in three laws (1957):
First Law: Nobody and nothing under the natural laws of this universe impose any limitations on man except man himself.
Second Law: Not only the Earth, but the entire Solar System, and as much of the universe as he can reach under the laws of nature, are man’s rightful field of activity.
Third Law: By expanding through the universe, man fulfills his destiny as an element of life, endowed with the power of reason and the wisdom of the moral law within himself.
A Note To Readers
“Krafft A. Ehricke was one of the most remarkable men of this century. Following in the footsteps of the father of spaceflight, Hermann Oberth, he extended the science of astronautics to enable not only man’s exploration of the Earth and Moon but his humanization of the Solar System.”
From: “How We Got to the Moon– The Story of the German Space Pioneers,” by Marsha Freeman; 1993; 21st Century Science Association. “Chapter X: Krafft Ehricke’s Extraterrestrial Imperative.”
Whether it is building the nation’s infrastructure needed today and tomorrow, or providing the American people with a vision of the world of the future that they shall be enlisted in to build, the problem is to overcome 50 years of cultural pessimism that set in as we virtually shut down the space program that President Kennedy had initiated. Not only that, as stated in the excerpt from a LaRouche PAC posting of January 9, not only is America no longer the leader in space exploration, we cannot even put a man in space today, and must rely upon the Russians to do it for us:
There are two outstanding strategic developments over the past week which bear emphasizing, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche remarked today. The first is the epochal achievement of China’s Chang’e-4 lunar mission, which is already producing a “Sputnik”-like effect internationally—ranging from enthusiastic congratulations and calls for ongoing cooperation from Africa, Ibero-America, Asia, and parts of the scientific community in the West; to teeth-gnashing frustration from the likes of Germany’s mass tabloid Bild Zeitung, which is horrified that China has leapt ahead of the West in this fashion.
What Chang’e-4 shows to anyone who cares to open his eyes, Zepp-LaRouche stated, is that China is on the right path of science-based physical economic development, including the Belt and Road Initiative; and that the West is idiotically wrong, and must come to its senses—a task which will be at the center of the upcoming Schiller Institute conference.
The second major development was the outright cancellation of NASA’s invitation to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, who had been scheduled to come to the U.S. to address NASA leaders and hold meetings with his counterparts. This action, taken at the instigation of Democratic Senators and others, is utterly insane, Zepp-LaRouche said: The U.S. cannot even get to the International Space Station without Russian rockets! We are sawing off the branch of the tree that we are sitting on. Moreover, if we are to forge a global alliance for development led by the Four Powers specified by Lyndon LaRouche—the U.S., Russia, China and India— the cancellation of the Rogozin visit was the worst thing you could possibly do. https://larouchepac.com/20190109/brits-find-its-not-so-easy-contain-human-creativity
In This Week’s Report:
Well at least northern California is getting an more than ordinary amount of rain and snow, at least for another week to come. It has not quite brought the total precipitation and snowpack up to the average for this date of the water year yet, but may do so this coming week. So, our first section below begins with the U.S. Drought Monitor, some reports on precipitation, a little background on atmospheric rivers and a nice map of the status of the Sierra snowpack.
California has a new governor, who while claiming to represent all Californians and riding on the delusion of a state budget surplus, promises the world to all while having no idea on how to deliver on such promises. And by the second day in office this week was already in a shoot-out with President Trump.
The Trump Energy Department in December announced that it’s going to spend $100 million over the next five years to create a research and development hub on desalination.
Jan. 31 is the deadline for the states that take water from the Colorado River to sign on to the drought contingency plan as the reservoir behind Lake Mead continues to shrink. The The Municipal Water District of Southern California is taking no chances that Arizona will not agree to a plan and is beginning to withdraw the water they have stored in Lake Mead. That itself could precipitate a crisis for the water supply of 40 million people.
Next is the developing story and crisis of PG&E. The utility stands accused of being responsible for the Camp Fire which destroyed Paradise and killed 85 people. Tens of billions and even criminal murder charges are possible consequences for the utility. The governor knows that one cannot allow the utility which supplies power to millions to be bankrupted and broken-up, but that is where it is headed.
A summary of an article, “Privatization Is Killing the U.S. Space Program,” follows. And then an announcement of a new 5-part class series on larouchepac.com on Saturdays: The Creative Powers of the Human Mind Reflect a Principle of the Universe as a Whole.
Finally, the feature this week is an explication of the Second Law of LaRouche’s Four Laws: National banking. Part of this section includes the Democratic Party proposal and a discussion of state banks.
