Earth-Moon Network = Maturing Space Industries

From: Al Globus

> With all due respect, the longest carbon nanotube created to date is
> about 9 orders of magnitude too short.
The leap from 10^-6 m to 10^-3 to 10^-1 happened in few years with not very
big push of money.
Now the fruits of nanotech are near so I trust many funds will be spent to
research applications and mass production refinement.

> Nor have carbon nanotubes ever been manufactured with the
> necessary orderly orientation. Furthermore, the stregth-of-materials

The first nanotube mass production facility (from Mitsui) is expected
starting in few weeks.
They are not the SingleWalledNanotube we need but are the first industrial
plant build.
The market push will increase the research to obtain SWN, because the can be
used for many purpose and in all markets.
So I don't wait that SWN will be researched only for the SE construction,
but for car, airplane, ship constrution, because this is economically savy.
The SWN and the MWN technology will be the Steel industry of the XXI century
(not counting on others SF breaktroughts that can change the rules).

> problems are only the first fatal problem for SE.
> Deployment is going to be VERY hard. Avoiding space junk is
> another really tough one. There are many more.
I looked more to the graph and probably the space junks is a big problem.
But the big objects can be shot down with the current or near term
technology (I remeber a test 747 of USAF adapted with a big laser cannon).
This will be a good and not controversial use.

> We should certainly keep working on SE, but don't count on it working,
> particularly not in the next few decades.
Not in the next decade, but in the following I hope.
Also the not in my life was said also for the Moon in the middle of the '50.

Mirco