Sea Dragon & BDBs Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: Sea Dragon & BDBs
# 3969 byaglobus@... on Aug. 11, 2003, 6:46 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
To launch from the US you need a permit from the FAA. The main issue
is safety (best not to launch over populated areas, you need an abort
plan, don't launch into flight paths of airports, etc.).
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Dawn McKnight
>> Thanks to John for this information.
>>
>> It reminds me of one of the silly schemes I sometimes ponder, for
>> when I have Bill Gates' money...
>>
>> As I understand it, only national entities, or those they
> designate,
>> are allowed to launch to space.
>
> This shows how thoroughly hoodwinked the general public has become.
> Government agencies would _like_ people to think that only they are
> allowed to launch into space, or that it is simply too expensive for
> private individuals or corporations. This is simply not true. If
> it were, then all the Xprize contenders would be engaging in an
> exercise in futility.
>
>>
>> As it happens, there's a nation which is closer to the equator
> than
>> Cape Canaveral, where you could buy up land right cheap... because
>> the country, Tuvalu, is sinking.
>
> Tuvalu doesn't really need the space program; the country is
> becoming rich from the internet (the country code is .tv)
>
>>
>> As I see it, it wouldn't cost more than a few million to buy up a
>> significant interest in Tuvalu, and get designated as the Tuvalese
>> Space Agency. Then you build stilt structures, and greenhouses.
> It
>> would be a good place to test solar power satellites because,
> should
>> the beam happen to wander off the rectena, you've got thousands of
>> miles of empty ocean before it damages anything.
>
> Rectennae are safe; the beam is a low intensity microwave, and any
> land underneath the rectenna can be used as farmland. Birds,
> animals and people would be quite safe directly in the path of the
> beam. It is not like it is an Xray death beam.
>
> ed
>
The International Space Station (ISS) most important legacy may be
jump-starting space tourism. Consider: the first space tourist, Dennis
Tito, was supposed to go to the Soviet era Mir space station. Under
pressure from NASA, Russia de-orbited the Mir which resulted in Mr.
Tito going to the ISS instead. Now the Mir was old, smelly, crowded and
probably not all that nice. The ISS was brand new, shinny, much more
roomy, etc. Mr. Tito came back to Earth with glowing accounts of how
great space is. Would his experience have been as good on Mir?
Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html
Views expressed in this email are only my opinions and are not the
position of any organization I'm familiar with.