tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427940.post5004964430525502216..comments2023-12-05T07:50:19.855-05:00Comments on No Oil for Pacifists: Tie A Rocket To Its Tail@nooil4pacifistshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16688417615117569825noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427940.post-41072316751835625472008-07-14T21:09:00.000-04:002008-07-14T21:09:00.000-04:00This whole proposition is based on a faulty unders...This whole proposition is based on a faulty understanding of both orbital mechanics and what we SHOULD be doing up there.<BR/><BR/>1) If you're in orbit, you're already halfway there.<BR/><BR/>2) There is a HUGE mass of stuff we don't have the slightest real clue about in space, including and especially in material sciences -- making stuff in zero G is something we know nothing about at all.<BR/><BR/>In order to have a useful presence in space we need to have a small processing and collection station on the moon, and a mass driver to put stuff up where we can do something with it in space. That way we don't have to haul material up out of our own rather hefty gravity well.<BR/><BR/>In other words, the only intelligent movement you might do with the ISS, if anything, is in a fixed orbit around the earth-moon system so that we have regular trips and it is easy to use the moon for whatever.<BR/><BR/>We aren't using the moon sufficiently at all -- there is only limited use we can get from an interplanetary craft, and the money, if it were going to be spent, should be spent on making space useful not showpiece activities like mars or whatever.<BR/><BR/>We already did that sort of thing going to the moon back when, and look what it got us -- a lot of whiny idiots ready to chop the budget for it because it did not appear to serve a useful purpose.<BR/><BR/>We should be aiming to make space a place where wealth comes from, so that people will WANT to stay there.OBloodyHellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09992539380115488567noreply@blogger.com