Re: Burt Rutans plans for a manned mission to Mars

royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

:On Fri, 12 May 2006 14:00:36 GMT, Fred J. McCall
:<fmccall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:
:>royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
:>
:>:On Fri, 12 May 2006 03:34:02 GMT, Fred J. McCall
:>:<fmccall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:>:>
:>:>If we can lift enough mass to put up a space elevator we don't need a
:>:>space elevator.
:>:
:>:?? ROTFL!! "If we can send enough men and supplies and equipment and
:>:rails and crossties all the way across the continent to build a
:>:railroad, we don't need a railroad."
:>
:>Cute, but hardly the same thing.
:>
:>Calculate the mass of your space elevator. Now figure out what it
:>costs to put up at current launch costs.
:
:Why? I have already described the bootstrap process that refutes that
:arugment.

Unfortunately for you, I don't buy into arguments based on handwaving,
pixie dust, and wishing real hard.

:>If launch costs come down enough for a space elevator to be
:>economically practical, launch costs are so low that the elevator is
:>redundant.
:
:It's the elevator itself that brings them down, by building itself. I
:have already informed you of that. Can't you read?

And so you are postulating a large, sophisticated manufacturing plant
up there churning out stuff that's stronger than anything we can
currently make out materials that somehow magically get there (or you
are postulating a hell of a space population already existing, in
which case the elevator is probably unnecessary.

After all, if you can manufacture such a thing starting in space, what
the hell do you need to bring up from Earth?

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn
.

Relevant Pages

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