TGD(ver 1.0) Waste of Time

I can arrange to put this report on
http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/. Can you have Professor
Collins contact me to make arrangements to send it in a convenient
format? aglobus@...

andy-nimmo wrote:

> Hi Al,
>
> I took the liberty of forwarding a copy of your message to Professor
> Collins. Here is his reply:
>
> Hi Andy,
>
> Yes, I do have a comment. It's surely true that
> Nasa produces lots of reports etc ("Two thirds of
> the world is covered in water - the rest is
> covered in reports...")
>
> But Goldin certainly knows about this one, because
> he is on video-tape saying it will be put on Nasa's
> web-site (at Space Frontier, 1999). His assistant
> Lori Garver then checked with me about it, but
> it wasn't put up. And when I challenged her in
> public at the STA in June 2000 she too said it
> would be put up - but it's not.
>
> The wider reason for the importance of this is
> that it's the most economically valuable report
> Nasa ever published - and Goldin does NOT want
> the public of the media to read it. I discuss this
> at more length in my invited speech to the FAA this
> Feb, here:
>
> www.spacef
> ture.com/archive/the_prospects_for_passenger_space_travel.shtml
>
> Nasa is obligated by law to "...encourage,
> to the maximum extent possible, the fullest
> commercial use of space" - but it does not.
>
> However, I certainly agree that this is at
> least equally the fault of the committee
> that supposedly oversees Nasa. They're
> asleep at the wheel! (I have a letter on
> this in Aviation Week, March 12.)
>
> Best,
>
> Patrick Collins
>
> Best wishes, Andy Nimmo.
>
> Al Globus wrote:
>
>> andy-nimmo wrote:
>>
>> > You say, "NASA has not yet figured out that space tourism is a
>> really
>> > good thing." That is in direct contradiction of their report.
>>
>> NASA produces hundreds, if not thousands, of reports every year.
>> The
>> vast majority of them do not become policy. In this particular case,
>>
>> only a tiny fraction of people at NASA are aware it exists. I
>> seriously
>> doubt the administrator has read the executive summary, although I
>> might
>> be wrong. In any case, promoting space tourism is definitely not
>> NASA
>> policy, and neither the Congress nor the president has pushed NASA
>> in
>> this direction. I think they should. NASA is remarkably (although
>> not
>> perfectly) responsive to the people who supply their funding.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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.