ISLAND ONE, a prime time family sitcom set on the High Frontier

On 12/16/05, Xenophile wrote:
> I get "connection timed out" when I click on that. I'll try again in
> the daylight.

Weird. "Internet locality" working, I think. Loads instantly here.

> I picked PPR mainly because it is in _2081_. I think I might actually
> prefer Africa, as they have some mountains in just the right places.

What do you need mountains for? A mass driver or something?

Anyway, the Andes stretch from Argentina to Mexico, and so there are
very high mountains at the Equator in South America too - in Ecuador,
to be precise.

(...)
> Whatcha think about the rest of it? Other than that I didn't finish
> it, of course.

The story: the funny touches (like Ly simulating spacing) are, well,
funny - so I think that you are in the right path for a sitcom.

The tech: I think that I have already mentioned here that I have a
bias against lifting bodies; I think that the capsule design is the
way to go. Moreover, basically *all* scifi movies and series are
obsessed with lifting bodies, so in terms of TV innovation I think
that you would actually surprise the audience, giving them the feeling
of seeing something beyond "yet another space show", by showing a big
"passenger capsule" instead of a space shuttle descendant. Perhaps it
would also give them a feeling of a return to the golden age of space
exploration in the sixties, but as an alien I think that I don't
understand enough the American psyche to be sure.

BTW, have you done the calculations to see if the acceleration tunnel
would actually save much fuel?