How would you feel about a view like this from your window??
How would you feel about a view like this from your window??
Welcome to a page that will probably be seeing a great deal of
enhancement over it's lifetime. For quite a few years now I have been
reading a range of Science-Fiction literature, as well as other sources of
a slightly more serious nature. There are an awful lot of ideas that have
been put forward over the years by a number of people who have been
anything from scientists and government advisors to simple story tellers -
they have all had some sort of vision of how the future will look, and I
guess the majority of them would be surprised by how it has turned out,
though.
Here's a shot of an astronaut working on the shuttle - if it could only reach geosynch. orbit it's something that would actually be useful - is it me or do I moan a lot?
Ok - well lets start with a few ideas. Rockets, we are all familiar (I hope - though I can probably find a page to describe it if people want) with how they work and the amounts of energy that are required to get any sort of meaningful payload into orbit (or in the case of Skylab - not into high enough an orbit) - is there a better idea? - well in fact there are several, but they all depend on quite an investment in getting an infrastructure set up that will allow us to save all that energy that we are currently wasting.
Imagine, if you will, a building site where bricks have to be taken from the ground to the top floor. Now, at the moment in the 'conquest of space' we are carrying, almost individually, bricks in one single step to where we want them to be, wouldn't it be a lot more efficient to try doing it in one of these ways;
Getting a crane to lift up the whole lot at once, like a superlifter.
Having a conveyor belt continuously carrying them up, a beanstalk say,
Making the bricks on the floor we want them to be? - I personally think that when we get to that stage then the real use of space will be starting.. and once we get started I think we won't look back again, our cradle will have served it's purpose if you like.
Right then, what do we need to make a real go of space? well, to my mind there are several items of hardware that need to be in place.
The most immediate (and most useful) installation is a colony on the moon, preferably of about 1000 people, enough to mine the surface of the moon and send the refined ore to earth orbit. The colony would be as self-sustaining as possible (heard of the Earth 1 and 2 experiments?) so that they can basically operate independantly of a regular supply service.
Along with the moon colony there would also be orbital factories that would turn the raw materials, sent from the moon, into useful things; space stations, transports, construction materials etc.
A space station would be next, having got our infrastructure in place, with established colonies and orbiting factories, we would then be looking for places where ordinary people would be able to live ordinary lives.
Just think that it was less than 100 years ago that we started to fly, and from flying the 120 feet (at 30mph) at Kittyhawk in 1903, to the 125,000 miles to the moon in 1969, it is only 65 years, you can't help but think that by now we should be doing more than just building Freedom (the space station) and sending objects to the planets - not that I deride these efforts - but we should be sending powerplants to the moon, machines and furnaces, diggers and other equipment, so that colonists can actually make a base and expand beyond the inevitable landing pod.
After a space station we have a wide range of choices, but the most likely events would probably be driven by companies and individuals - along much the same sort of lines as the American mid-west expansion and colonisation. That's what I would like to see anyway.
We can do it. we should do it, unless we are scared to see what's out there we will do it - I hope it's in my lifetime.
The technologies that will be needed are basically around; linear motors, maglev tech., fission/fusion power, closed cycle environments, cheap technology etc. More important than those, though, is the acceptance that it can be done, and just as a few hundred years ago we didn't know about the existance of the majority of the planet's surface, so in a few years time we will be able to look back at Earth and accept it for what it is - a finely balanced and delicate home for us, but a home that we can now move away from and so begin to expand ourselves.
25 Years ago we were taking pictures like this - I feel a great sense of loss that we are not doing justice to the legacy left us by these people. We can do so much, if we only put our minds to it - what on earth are we waiting for? At long last we are seeing co-operation on more than just a political level between the US and Russia, how long before ESA, China, Japan and the other nations of this Island Earth also realise that in order to get anywhere we will all have to act as one to realise the dream - I for one hope that we won't run out of money, resources or the means of at least reaching orbit before we can start the expansion of the human race beyond our speck of a planet.
TTFN