Posted on 09/20/2007 8:42:20 PM PDT by anymouse
I for one would be somewhat skeptical of using lasars as they are horribly inefficient, in the 1%-2% range(98%-99% of PE becomes waste heat). Correct me if I’m wrong on that. As to nuc-fuel you’ll always have contrarians who love to screw up technical advances just for the destructive fun of it. In the old USSR they used to put such folk in psychiatric hospitals...
Still though, this is but a theoretical concept, a small demo rocket would go a long way toward major funding. And it reminds me of that engineer who opined : give me all morning and I can think of at least 5 million dollar projects, give me all afternoon and I can think of at least 1 Billion dollar project; each and every DAY of the week.
NASA is the starved runt in the federal budget, and awash in ingenious “sperm” ideas like this. With the shuttle gobbling up virtually all of their budget, it’s a wonder that they get anything else done in space development.
Will a Muslim astronaut be piloting this ship to?
Nonsense. Just add more laser cavities.
Sounds like it is time to let the X-Prize guys - the private sector - have a go at it. Of course that will also require the FedGov and the UN to get their bureaucratic @$$es out of the way.
Quite right. Look at the history of scientific achievement, bureaucrats never discover anything other than hidden rich man’s wealth that they can tax, ie, your basic lawyers/parasites. Yes, I know how AG works, have known for years; but problem : what if you gave EVERYONE in the world their own magic flying carpet(actually a car retrofit)? If you think the mexican FLOOD is bad, multiply that by 500 as the entire third world lands on YOUR lawn....
First, possibly the Caloris Basin in Mercury. Sound strange? Think : By the TEDF theory mercury should be almost 100% refractories as it formed in the hot plasma nearest the sun during the T Tauri formation phase. That means a high %age of it should be GOLD. Since the Caloris impact excavated the surface to a great depth...and AU79 is the only stable isotope.
A few other points : Mecury(and Venus as well)has almost no spin. This comes from the natural prograde spinning vortex of a condensing planet in the dust lane(CCW)being counteracted by the solar magnetic B dot field(CW)which decreases by the inverse cube of radial distance. That B dot field was vital to the sun’s existence as a more or less sphere(to begin fusion on the main sequence). Thus the “robbing” of M and V’s planetary spin as the orbital radius was increased.
Thus the B dot field pushes infalling gas/dust BACK OUT, transferring its spin angular momentum into the orbital momentum of the planets. Thus the sun has less than 1/5000th the SAM of the entire solar system. This of course comes from the original Mother Molecular Birth Cloud : inner edge orbits the center of the galaxy faster than the outer edge.
Thus the MMBC has a vast amount of SAM that has to be shed as the cloud shrinks gravitationally(ice skater’s faster spin as she draws her leg/arms inward). Otherwise the proto-sun would remain a flattened lenticular disc, the inner core whizzing around at the speed of light(perhaps a torus of hot plasma like an accrteion disc).
Since most stars are single, SOMETHING must be in orbit around them, taking up all that initial MMBC SAM. Thus the universe is LOUSY with planetary systems, thus another look at the Drake Equation is warranted.
Back to Mercury. The surface should be at least mildly radioactive from 4.5B years worth of solar/cosmic radiation, bring your lead lined space suits along with your drilling equipment(and sun umbrella too for fixed installations).
Thus you’re a GOLD MINER like california 150 years ago, but the purpose here, for the USA, is to pay off our mountain of debt, mostly to the chinese, with GOLD. All empires in history began with GOLD, yes(roman, spanish, english, american...)? Hey, it’s not that I have any LUST for gold(the love of money is the root of all evil), it’s just that we could re-invigorate the american economy by paying off the mountain of debt we’ve run up with a mountain of mercurian GOLD. Did you know that all the GOLD in the world would make only a cube 50 feet on a side?
Mars? Forget it, antarctica’s antarctica, you’d freeze your bippy PRONTO there, as well as explode and become a freeze dried mummy. No, I’d check out the Kuiper belt as well as the outer moons(charon, triton, miranda, etc)for the H2O/N2 richest one, then put it in close orbit around venus(like our own moon, thus making a 2nd “earth” in the solar system. You’d shoot chunks of it at the venusian terminator, increasing its retrograde spin whilst adding vital life-giving H and N to its atmosphere.
This would be much like the wet terran aboriginal ring system that was perturbed out of orbit by our captured moon, coating the(venusian/volcanic)earth with a layer of wet gravel that became our future oceans/lightweight continents(lunar regolith and continental isotope ratios are identical in the REFRACTORY elements).
Thus, many millenia from now we would be playing a joke on a future venusian Galileo : why do all the other planets in the solar system spin the WRONG WAY? No wonder then we’re so special, we spin WESTWARD.
I have it on good authority that the Athenian Empire began with SILVER!
So did the Comstock load in NV, it financed the Hearst newspaper empire. But how much is silver worth per oz vs gold(or platinum)? Heck, even palladium is worth far more than silver. No, silver’s real value is that it is just about the best conductor, both at room temperature and HTS cryogenic temperatures. It alloys well, other industrial uses besides jewelry(which tarnishes of course).
It was even used in WWII when copper became almost unavailable. My father, an EE, told of how they used silver buss bars on a french ship they were building in WWII instead of CU buss bars. Then there was the manhatten project, they needed a LOT of CU : unavailable. The physicists called the treasury : how much silver do you have? They laughed themselves silly. An hour later they called back : how much do you need and where do you want it?(they got a call from the WH).
So, Athens got its start with AG, then along came the Romans w/AU; whose was the greater empire?
"Thar's gold in them thar ... pits?"
Didn't the quest for gold bankrupt the Spanish? Ordinary rocks on the Lunar surface are "worth more" in (electrical) potential energy than gold on Mercury.
Still, Mercury seems a good source for heavy metals in general, and they will certainly be useful. Good choice.
"Id check out the Kuiper belt as well as the outer moons(charon, triton, miranda, etc)for the H2O/N2 richest one, then put it in close orbit around venus(like our own moon, thus making a 2nd earth in the solar system. Youd shoot chunks of it at the venusian terminator, increasing its retrograde spin whilst adding vital life-giving H and N to its atmosphere."
Venus can be made habitable a lot more quickly than that. Just don't go all the way down to the surface.
The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that a spot can be chosen to float a "balloon city", actually more of a bathysphere, where the temperature and pressure are comfortably Earth-normal. Because the gravity would be Earth normal too, it would make a great getaway spot for honeymooners and tourists. Picture a humongous "love-bubble" rather than love boat and you've got the picture.
In addition to scientific research and carbon fiber and nanotube production, workers on Venusian city bubbles could dredge the surface for building materials, (or for gold), or operate mining robots down below.
Although the universe is hydrogen, helium + some minor debris; Venus, because of the T Tauri solar system formation process, is devoid of H and He. It needs but H and N(primarily)to be a 2nd life bearing planet in the solar system.
Forget mars, it only has .11 earth mass, it’ll NEVER hold a 14.7 psi atmosphere, plus you’ll freeze your bippy there. Venus has .89 earth mass and surface oceans would have a mean temp of about 125 deg F, very WARM but not boiling. Add a shading RING system, high obliquity(tilt)and you’d have a terraformed planet. Then add a layer of charon-planetisimals about 20-50 km deep, and soon enough it would differentiate into oceans and lightweight continents similar to the earth environment today(hundreds of millions of years in the future).
Venus looks very unpromising now, but....
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