There is so much happening in the commercial space breakout right now that it is difficult to keep up. I will just give you a few links to recent events.
The waiting list for tourist flights to Space Station Alpha is growing longer as former Microsoft developer Charles Simonyi has passed his Cosmonaut physical. Charles is in line behind a Japanese entrepreneur, Daisuke ‘Dice-K’ Enomoto who is already in training for a September flight. Meanwhile, the lovely Anousheh Ansari, whose family are the all-american heroes behind the Ansari X-Prize and X-Prize Cup is waiting in line for a slot to open up.
Also in the news, efforts towards a Canadian space port are moving ahead. There is something very poetic about a Cape Breton launch site: I can imagine the tourists spending an evening before their flight listening to some of the very fine Cape Breton traditional musicians. What better way to prepare for a flight than sipping a pint and listening to a few good sets of jigs and reels?
Breaking news: ‘Dice-K’ has been pulled from his flight for medical reasons. Anousheh will likely get the next flight opportunity.
One suspects Joss Whedon would certainly approve.
Charles Simonyi, inventor of the love-it or hate-it Hungarian Notation. It certainly helps me as an amateur developer.
If I had the wherewithall, I’d be on the flight with him.
All this rocketry is all well and good, pricey though. I’d be interested to know your take on this is. Pipedream?
I think we will see it by the end of this century, but only after a ‘new age’ dawns. Under the current idiocy which passes for the US government, I would really not want to write the envirnonmental impact statemnt on s beanstalk.
We just do not understand the failure modes well enough, nor how to fail-safe against them. If you have read ‘Red Mars’ and ‘Green Mars’ you will know what I mean.
Dale,
As a nascent lawyer, I’d love to write the EIS on a space elevator. 🙂
A recent book published by LiftPort, and including chapters by folks such as Arthur C. Clark and Kim Stanley Robinson, not to mention the dozens of other scientists, engineers, and policy analysts that contributed to the book, dispel fact from fiction in SE design and implementation. There are significant obstacles, but the least of them is fear of a world-wrapping elevator disaster. And as you note in your post, some of the most significant obstacles will be political and legal in nature.
What better way to prepare for a flight than sipping a pint and listening to a few good sets of jigs and reels?
I can think of one, at least…
http://www.glenoradistillery.com/glenbreton.htm
Chimo!
RGT
Hmm. No notification of successful posting, there. Back to lurking.
RGT
I see your point Dale. However I do think that the benefits of having one far outweigh the potential risks.
The Wright brothers probably would never have gone ahead if they thought that giant aircraft would be used in the various ways that they have been over the last hundred years (The Blitz, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, countless airline disasters, and of course 9/11).
Its imperative that we get off this rock and the most efficient way would seem to be a space elevator, damn the risks.
While building a space elevator sounds well and good, isn’t it putting the cart before the horse? In order to build one we have to have the capability to put tons and tons of material up into space in an economical fashion just to build the initial string connection and the mooring facility. With current technologies just getting the bare skeleton up into orbit would be prohibitively expensive. And if there is some break through in allowing us to cheaply get things up into orbit, will we really need a space elevator?
The only way that I can see that we could build one of these things with current or forseeable technology is to make a few Orion spaceships to send up the material, but if anyone seriously suggested that the Greenies would set up a howl that could be heard in the next galaxy.
if anyone seriously suggested that the Greenies would set up a howl that could be heard in the next galaxy.
Which is precisely why it should be done.
tcobb:
The plan for building a space elevator is easily doable with todays launch technology. The plan entails sending a miniscule nanofiber “seed” line down from a spool small enough to fit into conventional launch systems. Once the seed line is attached, climber robots will climb up it and reinforce it by laying additonal lines, and then will collect at the end and add counterweight.
tcobb:
The plan for building a space elevator is easily doable with todays launch technology. The plan entails sending a miniscule nanofiber “seed” line down from a spool small enough to fit into conventional launch systems. Once the seed line is attached, climber robots will climb up it and reinforce it by laying additonal lines, and then will collect at the end and add counterweight.