What happened to the future?

[AlfredJPruffock]

Best way to build a space elvator is to go get 2 asteriods from the belt (A c type or super c type for your volatiles and an FE type to use as the actual space station)

on the trip back from the belt use relevant materials in asteriods to create the space tether and then put into geo syncronous orbit and dangle tether into tether point which was built on earth.

could be done in 10 years assuming the clever geezers can get the carbon nanotubes to grow long enough and be strong enough.

Space Tether should be developed further - still got my Mission Badge from STS-46 ! Nah - I wasnt on the Shuttle before you ask - ground IT support back in those days.

[OwlHoot]

Do you recall seeing Uncle Al's idea for a cheap space station? A submarine.

He's still going strong, smiting kooks left right and centre on sci.physics and sci.chem. He's a bit compulsive about that really, and to be honest I don't know why he (or anyone for that matter) bothers with them, especially as he announced with a big fanfare a year or two ago that he was leaving, to avoid being drowned in a deluge of carp!

[xoggoth]

When socialism was discovered evolution began to run backwards. We will exterminate all other species before heading back into the primal soup oursleves where, as tiny primitive organisms we will not dare to evolve beyond any other tiny primitive organisms for fear of excluding them or not respecting their primitive organism rights.

[DimPrawn]

When socialism was discovered evolution began to run backwards. We will exterminate all other species before heading back into the primal soup oursleves where, as tiny primitive organisms we will not dare to evolve beyond any other tiny primitive organisms for fear of excluding them or not respecting their primitive organism rights.

It's the only "fair" thing to do. See you all in the primordial soup.

[Foxy Moron]

Is that next to the swamp of immigrants?

[BrowneIssue]

Never understood why US/Russia built a space station when the moon's already there.

To be able to do experiments in zero gravity.

To see if we could.

To see what extended exposure to zero-G does.

To see what extended 'living in a tin can' does to the mind and body.


Personally I want to see us investing in:

- Airships: why has nobody told the public Helium doesn't explode

- Ekranoplan (ground effect craft): cheap and fast trans-oceanic container shipment. Safe and fast enough and relatively very comfortable and cheap passenger transport.

[NotAllThere]

To be able to do experiments in zero gravity....

micro-gravity

[NotAllThere]

It's the only "fair" thing to do. See you all in the primordial soup.

I'm just a crouton in the primordial soup.

[BrowneIssue]

I'd commission a massive sea reclamation project.

Sea Wall 1 from John O'Groats to Stavanger Norway.
Sea Wall 2 from Dover to Calais.

Reclaim the land within and join England and Scotland to Europe.

Lots of new land for populations, resource exploitation, etc.
New high speed links in to Europe, reducing the need for some air travel.
Plenty of jobs created.

You could do the same with the North Atlantic and link the USA to Europe.
Again, high speed trains (I mean Mach 2 or faster). Lots of new land, new countries, etc.

Well, you said "big projects" !

Funnily enough I walked in on a lunchtime discussion about the viability of such a project between some hydro engineers and marine biologists last year.

The dams at the ends would be immense! And it would pong as it was drained.

The environmentalists would be unhappy, especially when they see just how sterile we've made the North Sea and English Channel with over-fishing and drag nets.

[TimberWolf]

He's still going strong, smiting kooks left right and centre on sci.physics and sci.chem. He's a bit compulsive about that really, and to be honest I don't know why he (or anyone for that matter) bothers with them, especially as he announced with a big fanfare a year or two ago that he was leaving, to avoid being drowned in a deluge of carp!

For a while he was threatening to grow a 1 Kg diamond and later was annoyed at the whole physics community for not performing his parity violation experiment. Very entertaining.