THE GREAT DEBATE (ver 1.0)

smasters@... wrote:

> lTOPIC
> Where should we go/start?
> Should we:
> -go to Mars

There is a very important scientific question that may be addressed on Mars:
is their life outside of Earth? Otherwise, Mars is a lousy place to
colonize. It's not very big, it's a long ways away, the gravity is low, and
everything about living there is a lot worse than Siberia or Antarctica, both
of which are very sparsely populated.

Not very big: it's less than the size of Earth. Orbital space colonies
promise thousands of times the surface area of earth in livable space.

It's a long ways away: current rockets take six months or so to get there.
Orbital colonies could be reached within a day or so.

Mars is cold, you can't breathe the air, there's terrible dust storms, I'd
rather live in northern Alaska. It would be easier, there's plenty of room,
and it would be a lot nicer. Orbital colonies have many serious problems, but
you do get microgravity recreation, absolutely fantastic views (important in
any real estate market), and something resembling earth-normal gravity. This
last issue is pretty important. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be
willing to be the first to raise a child in low-gravity. Without children,
you have no colonization.

>
> -go to the Moon

It's closer than Mars, but otherwise shares the same problems and has fewer
resources.

>
> -go for space colonies (O'Neils and the like)

yes. See http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/.

>
> -start with sea-based colonies

sea-based colonies are great, but I don't see how they necessarily lead to
orbital colonies

>
> -forget all this space crap, it is a waste of time, technology is not
> advanced enough

Until we get better launch vehicles, space colonization is effectively
impossible. But better launch vehicles are probably only a few decades and
several hundred billion dollars away :-).
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.