From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Fri Aug 23 2002 - 17:00:13 MDT
Reason wrote:
>...Wouldn't be easier at the moment to ("just") start running a
>rail gun up the side of a big equatorial mountain for cheaper ground to
>orbit stuff?
>
This is a very viable option, and much more likely to be built than a
GEO cable. You would still have all the roadblocks that Anders
mentioned, the NIMBYs etc. And of course wherever there is a
mountain, you have yahoos who think it is sacred, etc.
>Getting up does seem to be a costlier process than
>getting down again...
>
So who cares about getting down again? Use the mountainside gun
to lift heavy, cheap and dumb payloads, such as water, fuel, food
for orbitting proles, etc, but not for lifting the proles themselves.
spike
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