Re: RE: starship-design: Re: Go Starwisps

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/4/97 4:21:50 AM, lparker@cacaphony.net (L. Parker)
wrote:

>Kelly,
>
>>We can't even determine telescopically whether MARS can support life and 
>>it is practically next door. I don't want to seem like I'm being facetious,

>>but I think a resolution of 1 meter at 10 light years is reasonable. We 
>>might be able to spot gross life forms at that resolution.
>
>Lee

I'm not sure if we couple determine if their was life on Mars with scopes.
 But we certainly haven't really tryied.  But then at this range its alot
cheaper to just send a damn ship.  Over interstellar distences the cost
ratios change a lot.

Of course a lot depends on the biosphere.  At 1 meter res Earth would be
extreamly easy to verify as biologically active.  You could even spectra
scope the atmosphere for telltale chemistry with a lot less.

Kelly

>Actually The largest scope I mentioned was Hundreds of thousands of miles
>across.  Thou the calculations are a good Idea.  To a degree you could scale
>up the scopes to any size nessisary.  How big would it need to be?
>
>Kelly