why outer space?

"Combs, Mike" wrote:

> What most people forget is that all this takes energy, and
> todays
> energy situation is we are depended on fossil fuels. The
> known
> reserves a finite, and the expected reserves no matter how
> high are
> also fixed.
>
> So here is your first reason to seriously consider space -
> long term
> energy supply. With enough energy you can swiss cheease the
> planet,
> develop technologies to filter the atmosphere for carbon
> dioxide,
> desalinate sea water for agriculture, etc...
>
> Yes, I would allow that of all the "limits to growth" issues which
> have been raised, energy is probably the one we are the closest to.
> But even here, we are obviously not as close to the limits to the
> reserves of fossil fuels as the doomsayers of the '70s predicted.

Win most lighting was done with whale oil, someone could have built a
computer model proving that we would run out of whales (which actually
almost happened) and would be without energy. Of course, we figured out
how to use oil from the ground and were good for another century or so.
Similarly with oil, as the price goes up alternatives will be found.
For example, today, wind power is about the cheapest source of new
electrical energy (5-8 cents/kwatt/hr I think). Wind resources between
the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains are enormous. For the
future, one of the possible alternatives might be space based solar
energy. NASA is doing a little bit of work in this direction. It
should be encouraged.
Al Globus
aglobus@..., (650) 604-4404
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

The dinosaurs weren't spacefaring. We are. I don't think that's an
accident.
Maybe we are life's taxi to the stars.

I think we should:

1. Devote half of NASA's budget ($7 billion) to reaching NASA's 2020
goal of
reducing launch costs to Low-Earth-Orbit to $220/kg with a 0.01% failure
rate.
This should enable space tourism. The resulting orbital hotels will need
to
develop efficient orbital life support and other necessary technologies.

2. Build orbital space colonies. The materials in the largest asteroid
are
sufficient for orbital colonies with a combined surface area about 500
times
greater than Earth's. Eros alone could make over ten thousand space
colonies,
each with about about 10 square kilometers of 1g living area.

3. After a few generations of orbital living, people won't need their
colony
to be near Sol. Then small groups of colonies with populations in the
tens-of-thousands can set out on multi-decade journeys to nearby stars.

Except the launch goals, none of this is even a little bit official.