Inter-Habitat merchant transport

victoriatangoman wrote: I just read this compelling account on the state of international
maritime transport and the scurge of piracy on the seas of the world.

If you have the time I encourage you to read this article.

http://www.wesjones.com/anarchy.htm

It got me to thinking of what we should expect of the transport that
will be occuring between the Habitats and the industrial facilities
in orbit.

I see no reason why such transports wouldn't be owned by companies
operating under a free-enterprise model.

If you do read the article keep in mind that the state of maritime
transport may be the model for orbital transport of the future.

TangoMan

Well, I read the whole article. It was very long indeed. I have seen sections covered before in various places.
I don't see the piracy part happening in space for a number of reasons.
Space will be more like air traffic where each vehicle is kept track of constantly while it is in transit. Not only vehicle traffic but every possible object that might impact a colony will be kept track of. Piracy is possible because of delay in the crime being reported. If the hijacking in the article had been reported instantly by automatic surveillance systems placed on-board the ship, then the hijacking would not have been useful because the craft could have been intercepted before the cargo could be disposed of. Insurers of craft going through problem areas should require it.
99.99% of the cargo traffic will be automated and the computer systems running the vehicle will use keyed encryption. Attempts to gain access and subvert the guidance system will be blocked and at extremes may cause complete system shutdown or self destruct. Craft not completely identified and under obvious control will not be allowed to dock. Everybody in the United States will not be killed by a suicide bomber. Everybody in a space colony may be killed. Even the first colonies will required some means of deflecting objects which may impact. Such systems would be just as useful at deflecting unwanted traffic. I am more concerned with vehicles which fail, new or abused. This problem will probably lead to dockings only being allowed on long tethers far from the main colony and force some industry to be tethered far enough away that catastrophic failures cannot harm transportation or the colony. Traffic not following flight plans and entering restricted space would be immediately deflected. The fastest deflection I can think of would be mass drivers firing smart cannon balls. Good reason for shipping masters to keep their craft in reasonable repair.

Side note: This topic triggered a desire to rant. What should have been done after 9/11 was to change one rule and add two requirements instead of the mass hysteria that has been going on.
Change the rule that "crews were to cooperate with hijackers" to "crews and passengers were to resist at any cost because any aircraft not under voluntary control of its crew was to be shot out of the sky". Immediately install tamper proof cameras in the cockpit and cabins that transmitted pictures back to control centers once a minute. Immediately install more secure cockpit doors. Mitchell James
www.InnerTransit.org (Home base for collaborative engineering on the web)