Jones Beene wrote:
...however?? if you can go fully robotic, and blast-off from a specially
redesigned aircraft carrier, in the middle of nowhere, and with every
human safely below deck... hmmm...
There is not the slightest chance anything like this would be allowed in
today's world. This is not 1950. Perhaps it should be allowed. Perhaps
concern over the environment has been carried to extremes in some cases.
However, in general, I think we still need much more protection than we
have, and much more conservation, not less.
I think large flying fission reactors of any sort are utterly out of the
question.
As for space exploration, from earth-to-orbit the only cost-efficient,
sensible approach appears to be the space elevator. A space elevator would
eventually give us the ability to lift millions of tons of fabricated
equipment to orbit, and to assemble
spaceships there. Even with chemical fuel, this will open the entire solar
system to us. (But something like lunar helium-3 would probably be a better
choice.)
An elevator would be even be superior to a CF powered earth-to-space vehicle.
Japanese national television recently had a short news special about future
technology expected by the year 2050. The space elevator was prominently
featured. Many people are taking this idea seriously. I will grant, the
core technology has not been invented yet, but we are closer to it than we
are to something like Bush's plan to explore Mars. It would cost far less
than today's space shuttle program or the ISS.
- Jed
