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Letters to the editor: Ignore the populist bait of an uneconomical manufacturing dream – The Australian Financial Review

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We need better performance from our politicians, and that requires us to ignore the populist bait on offer. And to reward the politicians who act against their own interests to benefit the country.

Graeme Bennett, Artarmon, NSW

Ed Shann would have us continue business as usual and go with our strengths (Forget Made in Australia, do what we already do well). But what of energy security, and the need to decarbonise?

We have recently witnessed Australias dependence on imports, whether in the 90 per cent of our imported oil supplies at risk due to conflicts elsewhere or a pandemic that isolated the very industries Mr Shann believes are our strengths: education and tourism.

As for subsidies, the Australia Institute reported that in 2022-23, Australian governments provided fossil fuel industries with $11.1billion in spending and tax breaks: This years figure represents a 5 per cent decline on last years, but subsidies in the forward estimates have increased from $55.3 billion to a record $57.1 billion.

The focus on returns to fossil fuel shareholders needs to shift to a focus on making renewables work for the environment and for an equitable transition to cheaper energy sources. This will require investment.

On a micro level, millions of Australians have worked this out already. New home battery installations rose 21 per cent last year. According to the Climate Council, rooftop solar is now providing 11.2 per cent of our nations total power supply after 314,507 households installed solar panels last year, bringing online 2.9GW of new generation.

Fiona Colin, Malvern East, Vic

It was pleasing to read rational commentary detailing criteria necessary to boost investment (Four ways we can lift investment in local manufacturing).

It was all about fundamentals: approvals; build times; competitive input costs; skilled workforce. The only mention of tax was the sensible suggestion for faster depreciation of manufacturing investments.

Improved depreciation rates can apply across all industries. Developing and purchasing computer software is part of everyday business and necessary to drive productivity and revenue. It is like employing people to achieve outcomes. All software expenditures should be able to be written off as incurred rather than depreciated.

Graeme Troy, Wagstaffe, NSW

I offer a counter to the self-serving views of the Minerals Council of Australia as presented by chief executive Tania Constable (Dont make stuff Australia has no edge in, says MCA).

Ms Constable seems to have no idea there is much more to a manufacturing sector than raw inputs and outputs. For a start, there is the whole can do mindset that a thriving manufacturing sector can engender. Ms Constable probably cant conceive that there might be thousands of young Australians who would much rather spend their work time actually making things and gaining practical skills than answering emails and moving numbers around on a screen all day.

Can I suggest she read Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama and pause for a moment to consider the lasting damage to society that can occur when considerations of individual dignity and respect are simply cast aside for the narrow economic benefit of the nation?

Fraser Faithfull, Caulfield South, Vic

The AFR View is right to say the tragedy at Bondi Junction at the weekend would be 10 times worse if the perpetrator had a gun (Bondi Junction tragedy brings out the best). The reason Australians rush to help is that we dont think a gun is involved; the first thing Americans do is run away for fear of being shot.

While it is comforting to see all politicians and media condemn this monstrous act and understand the publics need for full and continuous disclosure, this period will soon end. We will then want to see real change, and real action.

This is where our political leaders could easily let us down. Labor is often criticised for being soft on crime, and time will tell if NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fall into this category.

As The AFR View rightly points out, drugs are pernicious and a scourge; we need tougher action on drug dealers (especially ice, which seems to be in every suburb, and destroys too many lives), greater focus on reducing male violence towards women, reducing domestic violence, and fast action on mental health. We must support the police use of firearms in these situations, look at technology (artificial intelligence and CCTV), the carrying of mace by women made legal, and stab vests and tasers for security guards (with appropriate training and checks).

It is time for our political leaders to realise that laying flowers and sharing updates is important to help unite people and to grieve, but its 1 per cent of the job; taking effective action is the other 99 per cent.

Glen Frost, Darlington, NSW

The news that KIA is marketing a super-sized diesel vehicle specifically for the Australian market says a lot about our mind set. The world is in a climate emergency yet we are partying like there is no tomorrow.

When I drive to the local shopping centre, my little Corolla is dwarfed by a sea of Rams, Rangers and Range Rovers. They are excessive for doing the weekly shopping and school run.

What does it take to shake Australians from their complacency? We are all in this together, folks.

Barry Lizmore, Ocean Grove, Vic

I had no idea CPI was running at 20 per cent until I bought a copy of AFR Weekend in Adelaide on Saturday with a new cover price of $6, up from $5. No doubt Rear Window will shortly do a forensic analysis. After all, the Fins preoccupation with transparency is legendary.

John Bridgland, Adelaide, SA

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Letters to the editor: Ignore the populist bait of an uneconomical manufacturing dream - The Australian Financial Review

NASA Laser Reflecting Instruments to Help Pinpoint Earth Measurements – NASA

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The best known use of GPS satellites is to help people know their location whether driving a car, navigating a ship or plane, or trekking across remote territory. Another important, but lesser-known, use is to distribute information to other Earth-viewing satellites to help them pinpoint measurements of our planet.

NASA and several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command,the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are improving the location accuracy of these measurements down to the millimeter with a new set of laser retroreflector arrays, or LRAs.

The primary benefit of laser ranging and LRAs is to improve the geolocation of all of our Earth observations, said Stephen Merkowitz, project manager for NASAs Space Geodesy Project at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A team of scientists and engineers with the project tested these arrays earlier this year to ensure they were up to their task and they could withstand the harsh environment of space. Recently the first set of these new laser retroreflector arrays was shipped to the U.S. Space Force and Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado, to be added to the next generation of GPS satellites.

How do Laser Retroreflector Arrays Work?

Laser retroreflector arrays make it possible to do laser ranging using small bursts of laser light to detect distances between objects. Pulses of laser light from a ground station are directed toward an orbiting satellite, which then reflect off the array and return to the station. The time it takes for the light to travel from the ground to the satellite and back again can be used to calculate the distance between the satellite and the ground.

Laser ranging and laser retroreflector arrays have been part of space missions for decades, and they are currently mounted on and essential to the operation of Earth-viewing satellites like ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation satellite 2), SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), and GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On). LRAs for laser ranging were even deployed on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo missions.

The LRAs are special mirrors, said Merkowitz. Theyre different from a normal mirror because they bounce back light directly towards its original source.

For laser ranging, scientists want to direct light beams back to the original source. They do this by placing three mirrors at right angles, essentially forming an inside corner of a cube. The laser retroreflector arrays are made up of an array of 48 of these mirrored corners.

When light enters the array, due to those 90-degree angles, the light will bounce and take a series of reflections, but the output angle will always come out at the same angle as the one that came in, said Zach Denny, optical engineer for the Space Geodesy Project at Goddard.

What Will Laser Retroreflector Arrays Help?

Geodesy is the study of Earths shape, as well as its gravity and rotation, and how they all change over time. Laser ranging to laser retroreflector arrays is a key technique in this study.

The surface of Earth is constantly changing in small ways due to shifting tectonic plates, melting ice, and other natural phenomena. With these constant shifts and the fact that Earth is not a perfect sphere there must be a way to define the measurements on Earths surface. Scientists call this a reference frame.

Not only do these arrays and laser ranging help to precisely locate the satellites in orbit, but they also provide accurate positioning information for the ground stations back on Earth. With this information, scientists can even go so far as to find the center of the mass of Earth, which is the origin, or zero point, of the reference frame.

Geodetic measurements laser ranging to reference satellites like LAGEOS (Laser Geodynamic Satellites) are used to constantly determine the location of Earths center of mass down to a millimeter. These measurements are critical for enabling scientists to assign a longitude and latitude to satellite measurements and put them on a map.

Significant events like tsunamis and earthquakes can cause small changes to the Earths center of mass. Scientists need accurate laser ranging measurements to quantify and understand those changes, said Linda Thomas, a research engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

Satellite measurements of subtle but important Earth phenomena, such as sea level rise, rely on an accurate reference frame. The long-term global trend of sea level rise, as well as its seasonal and regional variations, occur at rates of just a few millimeters a year. The reference frame needs to be more accurate than such changes if scientists want to accurately measure them.

Geodesy is a fundamental part of our daily lives because it tells us where we are and it tells us how the world is changing, said Frank Lemoine, project scientist for NASAs Space Geodesy Project.

ByErica McNameeNASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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NASA Laser Reflecting Instruments to Help Pinpoint Earth Measurements - NASA