The declining public support for space exploration

On 19/01/2008, Charles F. Radley wrote:
>
> Space Solar Power is the only big space project with direct benefits to
> the public.

Probably not the only one; there's others.

At the moment I'm looking at launch loops. (http://www.launchloop.com/)

It seems that a launch loop would be able to launch people into space for
stupidly low cost (maybe as low as $3/kg).

If that works, and it certainly looks like it does right now, big time space
tourism/colonisation etc.

First time I heard of launch loops it sounded completely impossible, but
it's really only a complicated type of cable with the core spinning around a
loop at very high speed on a magnetic bearing in a vacuum. I've looked at it
carefully and there's no show stoppers, probably not even finance.

--
-Ian Woollard

We live in an imperfectly imperfect world. If we lived in a perfectly
imperfect world things would be a lot better.