TGD(ver 1.0) Waste of Time

Ed Minchau wrote:

> --- In spacesettlers@y..., smasters@g... wrote:
>
> > -forget all this space crap, it is a waste of time, technology is
> not
> > advanced enough
>
> The technology is already advanced enough; it has been for decades.

advanced enough for what? I don't think anyone can launch for less than
several thousand dollars a kilogram, even the Russians. There's a lot of
price pressure on launch providers today because of oversupply. Prices have
come down, but not by the order of magnitude or more necessary to colonize
the solar system or even enable tourism on large-scale.

>
> None of the ideas I have been talking about are new, Martin Marietta
> studied ET orbital salvage issues 26 years ago,

> various solutions
> have been available for a long time, including the Aft Cargo Carrier.

a friend of mine at NASA Ames studied the aerodynamics of the aft cargo
carrier using computational fluid dynamics. It was a long time ago that I
discussed it with him, but I'm pretty sure I remember him saying that it
caused very serious aerodynamic problems. Fatal problems. Wish I'd written
something down at the time ...

>
> The only thing lacking has been _will_ on the part of NASA.

To a first approximation, NASA does what the president and Congress wants it
to, subject to the usual problems of large organizations and hard tasks. I
think we should push Congress and the new president hard to make space
tourism front and center at NASA. It's the only market I see for inexpensive
human-rated launch vehicles. Such vehicles are essential to space
colonization.

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.