Alex Fraser wrote:

> Can you even imagine a flying car traffic
> jam? They'd be falling out of the sky the first rainy day.


Convincing the FAA this won't happen will likely be one of the main
hurdles to getting such a thing certified for non-experimental use.
As such, I'd bet money (if I were a betting man) on there being
sufficient safety systems against this kind of thing, at least at first.


>     I think we should think about what happens when space is easy to
> access. It is called space of course, but over crowding would be created
> by the needs of physics. Such as the geo synchronous orbits or special
> other places where it is just good to be. Are there rules already on
> where you can orbit other than safety rules for getting there? Are there
> lanes in space?


Space is vast.  How vast?  Well, let's just say that, in terms of total
area for vehicles to occupy (ignoring height), GEO is roughly equivalent
to one of DC's main highways as said highway is to a single key on a
typical computer keyboard...and that may be understating things.  For
properly operating satellites and vehicles, we are currently a long way
away from significant traffic issues.

But note I said "properly operating".  Litter is the problem here.
(Which, to make this on topic for the list, is one of many reasons why
we want SSTOs: they don't discard parts.)  Do a Web search on the term
"space junk".

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