Re: SPACE: How hard IS it to get off Earth?

Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 09:40:52 -0500

Doug Jones responded to Greg Burch's question:
> > How quickly after the development of a general purpose programmable
> > assembler could a completely "de novo space program" be developed, and how
> > many (or rather, how few) people with what expertise would be necessary
>
>How few? Three people- ... How fast? Mighty damn quick. ...
>Bottom line: Give me the right tools and I could be out of here tomorrow.

"Mighty damn quick" isn't very precise. And how fast you could develop the tools is part of the question. So.. a month, a year, ten years, or what?

Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323