Re: A Railgun on Earth

<hallerb@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:fd6fd3f8-12dc-4d92-a3e7-35808af8f021@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Feb 4, 5:12?pm, Quadibloc <jsav...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 4, 8:54?am, "hall...@xxxxxxx" <hall...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> NOPE! Use railgun to launch most cargo, components etc. Water doesnt
> care how many Gs it endures to orbit,.

This is true. But there's hardly a need to build a railgun for *that*
purpose, because after an initial startup phase, water for space,
nitrogen and hydrocarbons for space, metals for space, silicon for
space... can be obtained from comets and asteroids.

If one wants to send *millions* of people to space, to resettle them
in space habitats (or Mars settlements) that a handful of people
previously launched by rocket (and their descendants) have built, then
one needs to drastically lower the cost of sending people to space.

That's why I'm trying to see if there's an alternative to the hugely
expensive beanstalk.

John Savard

you cant start by settling millions, heck explore the moon mars
asteroids and perhaps mercury.

my carrier aircraft launch is a good way to get humans to space,

sorry the costs to mine asteroids is just too high for short term.

besides the world will get nervous about manuvering coments and
asteroids anywehere near the earth, ideal weapon:(

=====================================================

John, I can't see it. All your suggestions are too elaborate and expensive to operate. The beanstalk will win over the long run owing to its simplicity. The cost once it's accomplished, will drop away down and it will be the cheapest way to get up out of Terra's gravity well.

My second point has to do with resettling "millions" of people into space. If you will just stand around any crowded place and look at the people, you will see that not as many in one in a hundred of them, maybe not one in a thousand, has the stuff to go out there and live there. And further, when they get out there, where do they live? Space is different from here: have you thought about the cost and construction *per person* of the industrial base required to develop and maintain a warm moist breathable longlasting life and work space *per person*? It will not happen. Twice over, however large space is, no large numbers of Terrans are going to go out there and live there. Thus space cannot have any impact upon population issues here on Terra. (Able and adapted humans who were born and grew up there, are another story.)

As for getting water and other life resources from asteroids, hauling them up out of Terra's gravity well is not an option. It costs too much. As with the beanstalk, the industrial plant to get those materials from asteroids, is a new idea to us humans and it will cost lots of money to get it started, but it will then work better and cost less than out from Terra.

In all of this, I think it's good to hold up costs of these things vs the cost of one or two of the wars that Washington likes to do. (For whatever reason, if any.) Settling space is a much less expensive enterprise than one of those wars, and where all the money that goes into a war is dissipated -- and provokes expensive and destabilizing consequences -- space settlements will pay off in development of new cultural, technological, and personal resources. As well as by making some people very rich.

So if you want to work at something offering short-term large rewards, how about some investigative reporting. Peering behind all the PR about "what the people want," "domino theory of communism around Vietnam," and etc, why was Apollo killed when it offered so much to our future? Who are the people today who could pull together a space settlement program and make it work? Etc etc.

Titeotwawki -- mha [sci.space.policy 2009 Feb 06]


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