Putting humans in space

Joe Strout wrote:

Wrote: But compared to the million tons per second (!) lost by the solar
wind,
total spacecraft reaction mass will be a drop in the bucket.

Answer: You are right. But the Sun can afford to lose mass, not tens of
thousands of space habs. If humans could figure out some way to use what is
lost by the Sun for the purpose of reaction mass that would be another
story.

Wrote: Unless my math is wrong, that's $10,000 per person. You can't even
build a house for that (well, not in a decent neighborhood and up to
code in the U.S. anyway). To say nothing of food, water, and
infrastructure... I predict these 200,000 inhabitants will be mostly
dead within the year.

Answer: 200 billion $ for 200,000 inhabitants works out to one million $ /
person. OK, let's put the problem in another way. let's first calculate the
investment required for 200,000 inhabitants to survive in the garden
environment of the Sahara Desert (it will be a garden environment when
compared with the environment on the Moon and Mars), what will be the
required investment?.... Let's keep in mind that the inhabitants should not
expect a New York style of life. They must match their lifestyle with the
lifestyle they can expect on the Moon and Mars.

A possible to do list:

1. Solar farms to generate electricity.
2. Desalination plants to obtain water.
3. Modern tents for housing - ought to be enough in the Sahara Desert.
4. Green houses for Farms.
5. Etc ...

Regards,
Selvaraj

On 13 February 2012 01:59, Joe Strout wrote: