Tori and Dumbbells Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: Tori and Dumbbells
# 1051 byaglobus@... on March 20, 2001, 5:38 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
xenophile2002@... wrote:
>
> over the place>
Making nanotubes requires atoms that can take three neighbors to form
graphitic-like sheets. C, B, and N can happily bond with only three
neighbors, but Si cannot. Si only forms covalent bonds in a tetrahedral
geometry. Therefor, Si nanotubes cannot be one atom thick as C, N, and B
nanotubes can.
Al Globus
aglobus@..., (650) 604-4404
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html
The dinosaurs weren't spacefaring. We are. I don't think that's an accident.
Maybe we are life's taxi to the stars.
I think we should:
1. Devote half of NASA's budget ($7 billion) to reaching NASA's 2020 goal of
reducing launch costs to Low-Earth-Orbit to $220/kg with a 0.01% failure
rate.
This should enable space tourism. The resulting orbital hotels will need to
develop efficient orbital life support and other necessary technologies.
2. Build orbital space colonies. The materials in the largest asteroid are
sufficient for orbital colonies with a combined surface area about 500 times
greater than Earth's. Eros alone could make over ten thousand space colonies,
each with about about 10 square kilometers of 1g living area.
3. After a few generations of orbital living, people won't need their colony
to be near Sol. Then small groups of colonies with populations in the
tens-of-thousands can set out on multi-decade journeys to nearby stars.
Except the launch goals, none of this is even a little bit official.