What is needed to mount a private space program?
A laser launcher;
a free hand, without large ground crews or bureaucracies;
a space line run as economically as an airline;
capital;
determination;
mother wit;
well-placed friends;
the dream.
How does our current real world match up to these specifications?
"The dream" sounds a bit Trekkie. There have to be good material reasons for a space program. There are.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think Elon Musk and two of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, comes close to fitting this description. Altho known for its electric cars, Stirling pointed out Musk seems to also think of Tesla as a source for developing new technology for use off Earth. SpaceX, of course, focuses on making actual travel to and from space practical and cost efficient.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Of course we need good, sound, practical reasons for getting off this rock, no argument there! But reasons based on "dreams" are just as legitimate. I can imaging people frustrated by what they have to endure on Earth, rightly or wrongly, desiring to leave this planet with enough like-minded people that they could live as they thought was best elsewhere. Others would want to leave out of a desire to explore and find out what is OUT there. And so on and on.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Much sf assumes habitable and easily colonizable planets in traveling distance of Earth.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I believe Mars is colonizable and that Venus could be terraformed (see Pournelle's article "The Big Rain"). But it won't be quick or easy, and it will need time, toil, sacrifice, etc., to achieve. And I hope we still have enough people, either idealistic or simply disgruntled, motivated enough to work and struggle for great dreams and goals.
Ad astra! Sean
Mars is certainly colonizable: there's energy (solar), water and hence oxygen, fuel for spaceships can be produced from the atmosphere (synthetic methane), minerals, etc.
That means sealed habitats and domes for a good long while, but there's nothing wrong with that -- ultimately not all that different from urban life here.
Terraforming Mars and Venus is a much longer-term prospect.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Aside from some pointless irrelevancies about Giordano Bruno, Robert Zubrin's otherwise excellent THE CASE FOR MARS and THE CASE FOR SPACE make very good arguments showing Mars is colonizable. Plenty of resources there for a colony!
Agree, terraforming Venus and Mars is a much longer term job. But doable!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment