Re: What and When

From: Old Physics (skearney7_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 08/21/04 

Date: 21 Aug 2004 13:49:51 -0700

Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<4123ed73$0$64103$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>...
> Old Physics <skearney7@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Predictions?
> >
> > Obviously most contributers to this group have an interest in
> > space policy. Most have a better grasp of the technical aspects than
> > I do. What will happen in space in the next fifty years? What should
> > happen? How much should the US be spending and for what programs?
>
> Worst case: (neglecting world wars or other massive disasters).
>
> The microsat industry is healthy, with lots of services providing everything
> from rapid high-res imagery, to spot-beamed data services pointed at the
> user.
>
> Launch costs have fallen to $1000/Kg (2004 dollars), and there is a small
> but growing space tourism industry.
>
    What about lower resolution real time imagery? 300 satellites at
1000 km would give total coverage. An 8 in, 20 cm, telescope would
have a resolution of about ten feet. You could see clouds from both
sides now. Screen savers sponsered by advertiments might pay the
billion dollar price tag, in increments, but it is a market that would
quickly saturate. Spot beamed microwave would require a tracking
parabola. How much of a dent would this make in fiber optic
transmission?
    What kind of launch vehicles would be used?
>
> Best case:
> After 30 years of steady growth, the initial buried shack on the moon has
> grown to a small town of 15000 people, and several years ago, for the
> first time the total number of people born on the moon rose above the
> total deaths.

    I would expect a moon base for research, like Antarctica, and
industry. People too ill or old to work would return to earth. Do
you expect a lot of accidents?
>
> The factories are now really starting to roll out aluminium and other
> products, for export to the growing number of habitats and factories in
> earth orbit.
>
> Launch costs for earth are almost as low as for the moon, due to the
> space elevators, but the moon wins on rapid payload delivery in many cases.
>
> The base on mars cannot yet even be called a small town, but the
> experiments with low pressure greenhouses and genetically engineered
> plants show great promise - they have not needed to import basic foodstuffs
> for a decade.
>
> The manned mission to the polar craters on mercury has finally launched,
> despite controversy about if humans on the spot are the best way to do things.
> But as it's funded by Paris Hilton, owner of the very successful chain of
> orbital Hilton hotels where the super-rich play, nobody is really too
> bothered, apart from other hotel chains.
>
> <News: Paris Hilton has had intimate 3D recordings of her and her latest
> conquest stolen from her L5 apartment yesterday, she's reported to be as
> devastated as the last 17 times it's happened. Click here for more on this
> story>
>
> 7 asteroid miners have this week died in an accident when debris from an
> explosion hit their ship after their survey did not pick up a water
> pocket in the asteroid they were melting.
>
> The firm involved has been repeatedly fined over safety violations in
> the past, and all assets have now been siezed.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Historical comparisons
    ... More like the begining of the airline industry, ... for the first time publicly of sending men to the moon and returning ... 1962 it is clear that the President did not intend the US ... Since space technology travels beyond the Earth, ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: USA urges scientists to block out sun
    ... across) located at L1, 1.5 million km away from Earth, would intercept ... Plainly, getting to orbit is easier on the moon than Earth, Earth ... Ejecting the debris using solar ... These vehicles as I said could also launch the parts for a moon base ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Space port/dock/ship yard location
    ... Earth Moon L1? ... Moon Society - St. Louis Chapter ... I would build a commercial space launch center at the following ... The third stage, boosts 1,000 tonnes into ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Mars expeditions (was Re: Proposed sample return mission to Phobos)
    ... but our Earth transportation infrastructure is significantly more advanced than our space infrastructure. ... I'm sure a more advanced system could improve on steam, but that would require much R&D and much higher capital costs, and the market wouldn't support it. ... But you're talking about soft landing many tens or even hundreds of tonnes of equipment on the Moon right there. ... cost, including warehousing your stuff on Phobos for many months at a time until a good launch window comes along, and so on. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Space Leaders Work To Replace Lunar Base With Manned Asteroid Missions
    ... to kick NASA out of the Earth launch business? ... the Moon, then the Moon could serve humanity as an unbrakable space ... successful societies are more "consumer" oriented. ...
    (sci.space.policy)