Hi all

Hi I'm Carl from New York.

I am reading the Part Two of "The High Frontier" and I'm very excited by the
idea! I'm an artist (illustring books and magazines) and so it's easy for me
to image how the process can work.

I also think that some part of O'Neil's ideas can be combined with Mars
Direct plan in that the two stage landing of a return rocket and a base can
be used for moon (See The Case For Mars). Also, on the case of Mars, we can
use Mars Direct to explore and to search for life and to plan for
terraforming the planet while we're building Island One colonies that might
move to Mars. Then if it's doable, we'll send a ice rock into Mars to begin
terraforming. While Mars heats up, an Island One can show up to being a long
study and work on terraforming.

It also seems to me that the biggest roadblock on humanization of space is
the launch cost. There's some possiblities to improve the cost. I am
particular to the idea of land-air-space plane that use jet engin and rockets
for two stage climbing. At same time, I'm reading about "dark engery" in
science magazines. This dark enegry seem to be a force that can repal
gravity and help to speed up the expansion of universe. We don't know enough
about dark enegry to make a guess yet but I can't help wondering that if we
can control such enegry, we could create ant-gravity drive that would really
cut the cost of launch. Oh I can dream, can't I?

Are there any clubs for space fans in New York City?

Carl