reality check

i belive that the goals are not clear at the moment.
We need affordable access to space, that's one of the
bsic conditions for space development.
Affordable means , from my point of view the
following:
1-a completely reusable space commuter vehicle
2-a commercial airline type of land operation
3-a two stage horizontal take off and landing vehicle
4-first stage booster unmanned, with a mix turbo and
ramjet propulsion system will put orbiter in optimal
position for final push to orbit
5-booster to land at take off airport after orbiter
separation
6-orbiter manned , to reach orbit and perform its
mission
7-orbiter to land at same take off airport
Such a vehicle, which I call a space commuter is the
only reasonable alternative with present technology.
CEV is a step 50 years back, when you had to mobilize
to fleet for every landing or splashdown.
i can't believe that the lesson of the space shuttle
is completely forgotten and we are going back to
primitive solutions that are clearly dead end.
This will not lead us to the moon or Mars but we will
waste decades and money as it happened before.
We will not see space colonization nor settlememts in
our lifetime
Second technology needed is ADS
asteroid deflection system to deflect small,
100000tons water rich asteroids in cycler orbits to
Moon or Mars equip them and use them as transportation
system with hotel function during the travel
These asteroids , properly equipped with an
extraterrestrial construction system station
construction will represent the embryo of a space
colony and at the same time will generate profit to
its developers by supplying transporation to most
desired destinations.
Such embryo colonies will further develop by utilising
the materials of the deflected asteroid and by
generating income and will grow with time.
Any other space colony system , is not feasible, since
will not generate any income, nor initially nor later
on.
Since profit is the main motivation for private
enterprise this is the recommended road.

--- "Paul D. Fernhout" pdfernhout@...

> ...What is a bottle
> neck is we do not know how to make that seed
self-replicating factory,
> or have plans for what it should create once it is
landed on the moon or
> on a near-earth asteroid.

It probably doesn't need, at first, any more than how
to build more power,
mining, and manufacturing equipment. It's going to
need a good bit of time to
get the whole operation ramped up that way. If it's
made versatile enough,
whether the moonbase builds a mass driver system to
deliver components to L5
for a space station, or a moon base for human
habitation, or a radio telescope
for astronomy can be decided later.

protection around