Elon Musk says he will put millions of people on Mars.
On the topic of cryogenic propellant depots:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ball-a ... 2012-01-10
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ball-a ... 2012-01-10
Seems like a workable Idea. The only issue is that it is a different technology. We have more experience with Ion Engines than we do with long tethers, but it might not take long to catch up.KitemanSA wrote:Look up electro-dynamic boosted HASTOL (or better Hypersonic Skyhook). Unit we have an elevator, that is the most efficient. ZERO reaction mass (unless you count the Earth).Diogenes wrote: It seems evident to me that a more sensible approach to the first major problem (getting stuff into a high stable orbit) would be to launch stuff into the lowest stable orbit, then use VASIMR or Ion engines to boost it into high orbit. I was envisioning sort of a orbital tug boat that could grab cargo pods and continuously raise their orbits. The "tug boat" could be refilled with Xenon, (or whatever the reaction mass desired) while in orbit.
A week or so ago I read an article about creating a floating/flying space port at the edge of the stratosphere, and using it to launch and catch spacecraft to orbit. Cargo and crew are lofted to the station using ballons, and the spacecraft itself is a sort of large dirgible design with a booster rocket to get it up to space, and some sort of Electric driven reaction mass engine to orbit it higher.
Don't know how practical it is, but someone is working on this idea right now.
(I've been looking for it, but I haven't been able to find the article.)
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
— Lord Melbourne —
Looks like NASA is pushing ahead with Orion and SLS;
http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/eps/eps_data/ ... 01-001.pdf
from:
https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode ... 9&_cview=0
http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/eps/eps_data/ ... 01-001.pdf
from:
https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode ... 9&_cview=0
Well their plans are clear. Full reusability and routine transport of crew and cargo to LEO with probably an occasional mission to Mars. Btw, I think that the timeframes provided for the SLS are very optimistic.
Personally, I think that the SLS is a good candidate for being cancelled by the next administration. Of course that wont go without billions being spent on yet another paper rocket and money flowing to the usual suspects.
Personally, I think that the SLS is a good candidate for being cancelled by the next administration. Of course that wont go without billions being spent on yet another paper rocket and money flowing to the usual suspects.
Symptomatic of too lax a voting population.. The only people who can really be relied on are those who are truly motivated. The hungry or otherwise with a fire under their ass. IE the geeks and grease monkeys in the industry.
Neither the general public nor govt leaders are up to the task, and probably not unless we get another fire lit under the USA's ass like Apollo was. E.G. from a string of major Chinese successes up there.
Neither the general public nor govt leaders are up to the task, and probably not unless we get another fire lit under the USA's ass like Apollo was. E.G. from a string of major Chinese successes up there.
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CaptainBeowulf
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