From: Rüdiger (rkoch@rkoch.org)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2003 - 12:56:19 MDT
--- Brent Thomas <bthomas@avatar-intl.com> wrote:
> As impressive as these and other similar "heavy lifters" are we need
> to
> get away from the idea that the best way to get out of the gravity
> well
> is via any form of self contained thrust/reaction propulsion. It
> simply
> makes no sense to use propellent that you have to lift as a mechanism
> of
> getting to space.
It does make more sense if the shuttle / cargo is made of nanostuff and
therefore lighter. The cost of LH2 LO2 is neglectible compared to the
other costs. Nano can eliminate a great deal of them even though
lauches would still be noisy. That way all the past experineces in
lauch systems can be re-used.
> 2) beanstalk! - this has been limited before now by the need for a
> strong material from which to fabricate the supporting structure.
> Various forms of nano-tubes are being developed and all thats really
> holding this back at this point is the ability to construct longer
> strands of the tough material cheaply. Lots of research on lots of
> fronts that will lead quickly to addressing this need. See
> http://www.isr.us/SEHome.asp for background and details.
I think decentralized solutions work better. Consider that such
elevators are primary targets for terrorists. And we didn't create
structures of that size yet. Lessons would need to be learned we could
do without.
-Rudiger
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Sep 08 2003 - 13:07:12 MDT