Futuof Space Colonization

--- Brad Walsh wrote:
> The gravity well is the greatest barrier to mankind's healthy expansion
> beyond the resource limits of the planet. I still hold out hope that more
> folks in government (any government) will take a liking to the combination
> of Sky Hooks and suborbital SSTO space planes. The current alternative--Big
> Dumb Boosters or Space Shuttles--make large scale space expansion too
> expensive.

Either SSTO or Skyhook could make a big improvement provided we do it right.
Do it wrong and you just get another STS.

> Once the investments in Sky Hooks + SSTO's, or in Space Elevators, have been
> made, and the infrastructure is in place, those bridges to the solar system
> will open the flood gates of investment and emigration. No single
> investment the world's taxpayers could make would solve more knotty resource
> and environmental problems than the bridge to space. There can be no
> question that the demand is there, both from commercial interests and from
> potential emigrants.

With the infrastructure in place for cheap earth to orbit travel and all the
media about it business people will notice space and start pouring money into
it.

> But alas it's a hard sell--no politician can talk about space expansion to
> voters without risking being called a space geek. Too many remember that
> cliche from the 1970's, "They can put a man on the moon, but they can't
> [fill in favorite special interest project]."

Make Homer Simpson's shoes smell clean.

> The concepts are too difficult to reduce to a bumper sticker, and there is no
> consensus about how to proced from those of us who do study the issue
> (something I think we should work on).

We're not going to get a concensus. At least not until we've actually been in
space in a much bigger way then now. We probably have to focus on uniting the
different space groups and get them working together to help each others
projects instead of finding reasons why their project should go ahead instead
of that of another group (of course space settlement is the best one).

> Meanwhile the American public is convinced that multibillion dollar
> expenditures on space just go to gather scientific trivia that fascinate
> graduate students in physics and astronomy, but benefit no one else.

Facinating Graduate students is enough of a reason to pour billions of dollars
into the space program. What do the public have against it?

> It will require a firm commitment from some untouchable bureaucracy, like
> the Pentagon, or from a command economy like China's, for it to happen in
> our lifetimes. Would a space program run by either of those two be
> unfriendly to a democratic, entrepreneurial, free enterprise human community
> in space? Opinions differ. I can't guess what price Beijing might charge
> the rest of us for a ride on a Long March Elevator, but I suspect the fates
> of Taiwan, Tibet, North Korea and a lot of Asia will be the worse for it.

It would really depend on ow much control China manage to exert on space by the
time other countries are able to get control as well. It does seem that the
Chinesse space program does have military aims but that isn't what should be
worried about. It's how they use whatever capabilities they get that is
worrying.

> So IMHO the future of mankind in space comes down to this question: What
> are the chances we can convince Pentagon planners that the Sky Hook is a
> defensible asset that can confer a national security advantage that is worth
> the trouble and expense?

It really depends on what the Pentagon would use it for.

> If they're behind it (they and the defense contractors who would bid the
> jobs), Bush would sign a blank check without a moment's delay,

Reagan did the same with SDI. Look how far it advanced us (almost nothing
compared to the cost)

> and our grandkids could grow up in zero gravity.

I really don't think you'd want anyone to grow up in zero gravity. Afterall
you know what it does to you?

Although being able to play in zero-g is something I'm sure most children born
on earth would really like to do.

> If not, space will belong to the Smiling Sons of Chairman Mao. That ought to
> make the Joint Chiefs shudder.

A space race might be what's needed. This time based on actually staying there
instead of just planting a flag and bringing some rocks back.