well considering that we are all in low earth orbit above you,,, :-) when are you finally going to come on up? the stars are fine , the radiation tickles a bit, and its a fantastic experience to "pee" on the ayatola as we pass over.

:-)
From: newhome84
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 8:21 PM
Subject: [spacesettlers] progress

you call this site "space settlers" is anyone really trying to make
progress or is it just talk

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "panamabob"
> well considering that we are all in low earth orbit above you,,, :-
) when are you finally going to come on up? the stars are fine ,
the radiation tickles a bit, and its a fantastic experience to "pee"
on the ayatola as we pass over.
>

ROTFLMAO!!!

It sure is funny watching all those news reports about the "Northern
Lights" when it's just the uric acid burning up in the atmosphere
that's causing them perrty colors in the sky :)

TangoMan

--- In spacesettlers, "newhome84" wrote:

> you call this site "space settlers" is anyone really trying to make
> progress or is it just talk

While what this group mostly does *AS A GROUP* is talk, there are
several members that do a bit more outside the group itself. Myself,
I talk (though I do hope to do more someday... no promises).

Xenophile (and no, I'm not yet prepared to say what... nothing huge,
like a functional CATS system or the like... dagnabit!)

On Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 12:06 AM, Xenophile wrote:

> --- In spacesettlers, "newhome84" wrote:
>
>> you call this site "space settlers" is anyone really trying to make
>> progress or is it just talk
>>

Having studied space colonization for over twenty years, and done a
little bit of actual work, my estimate for the cost of building the
first genuine orbital colony is a least a couple trillion dollars. The
next important step is much better launch vehicles, which will
certainly cost tens of billions of dollars to develop. Some important
progress on self-sustaining ecological systems could probably be done
for only a few millions of dollars.

The point is, as a practical matter, what we can do is talk. This is
significantly more valuable than you might think. Right now orbital
colonization isn't on the nation's (or the world's) radar. It should
be, and only talk, and lots of it, has a chance of getting it there.

The dinosaurs were destroyed by an asteroid because they weren't
space-faring. It's almost as if Gaia then thought "Well, dinosaurs
worked pretty well, but space-faring is necessary. Maybe I'll should
try mammals this time." Humanity is now developing systems to detect
and deflect asteroids, and could build orbital space colonies to spread
beyond Earth to insure life would survive a planetary catastrophe.

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

Views expressed in this email are only my opinions and are not the
position of any organization I'm familiar with.

Here's a group we're all familiar with that is putting their money
and action where their mouth is. Privatized space travel will be a
boon to the colonization effort. http://www.xprize.org/

Here's one recent article (there've been many) comparing the jump in
tourist airflight after Lindbergh's success to what could happen
after the successful x flight...
http://www.news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id20142003

-Brad