From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Tue Dec 30 1997 - 00:05:11 MST
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A first rate post by Forrest Bishop <forrestb@ix.netcom.com>, but I can
always find something to argue about.
>Mars also may have so-called "fossil fuel" deposits similar to
>Earth's oil and natural gas reservoirs.
But of course such fuel is useless without free oxygen, and even as a chemical
feed stock I question its value, especially in an age of Nanotechnology.
>It bugs me to see a concept [O'Neill-style colonization] named after
>its popularizer.
I think you're being a little hard on O'Neill, the man did some original work
and he asked a very deep question, "Is the surface of a planet the best place
for an advanced civilization?" His answer was no, and I think he was correct.
Besides, naming a concept for its popularizer is a tradition, 2 continents
were named after one.
>My reform proposals start with instant and total shutdown of the
>Space Shuttle program.
yes. Yes. YES! The space Shuttle started life as a terrible way to perform a
dangerous job that nobody wanted done, huge expense and inept management
did not improve things. Dump the white elephant.
>This [solar power satellite stations (SSPS)] has been studied since
>the late '60s, it is just now starting to make economic sense.
At one time I was a big booster of SSPS, but now I have doubts they will ever
make economic sense in delivering power to earth, I certainly wouldn't invest
my own money in such a venture. It's possible to transmit power by microwaves
from 22 thousand miles, I'm just skeptical of its practicality given the
alternatives. If you had a sky hook things would be very different, just send
the power down a wire, but that's a project that makes even SSPS look modest.
>Mining asteroids will, IMO, completely eliminate Earth mining.
I may be a wimp but the idea of using the Earth's atmosphere as a brake to
slow down a large irregularly shaped asteroid to change its orbit, as some
have suggested, scares the hell out of me. I think there will always be a lot
of opposition to crashing any asteroid larger than a small bus to the Earth,
and if they were that small I wonder if it would be economic. Rather than
pushing material down a gravity well it might be better for us to climb out
and use the resources there.
>The private Conestoga rocket of the early '80s was made from a
>Minuteman booster. The company was destroyed by someone who notified
>some obscure gov agency that dealt with export law. The spent booster
>landed in the Caribbean, outside US territorial waters and was, you
>see, a form of "exporting munitions".
I didn't know that, but it's so crazy it must be true, nobody could make up
something that dumb. That's our government in action! How sad.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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