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Re: <Two bits worth
>I sincerely hope that Tim is vastly underestimating how computer
>sophistication will have advanced by 2050. But his comment about the ions
>not hitting the mouth of the Asimov may be a concern for reasons other than
>computer control. Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't those ions be affected
>by interstellar dust, gas, charged particles, and weak magnetic edies from
>the stars? I wish I knew just how far we could keep an ion stream focused
>to with 1000 km, prefereable 10km. Heavy ions, like iron, should be less
>perterbed no matter what kind of interference.
Two things:
- We could shoot negative and positive charged particles so that the total
beam will be neutral and thus not fade away completely.
- Or we could not use particles but instead EM-radiation (eg. a MASER)
>Okay, I'm going ballistic here for a minute. I vote we move the launch
>date to 2150 or later. Why? You probably know why. It just doesn't seem
>that technology will be at all up to the task of sending a man to another
>planet (let alone a starsystem) and bringing him back safely without
>unparalled, united, financial support from the nations of Earth. And seeing
>how little people are investing into figuring out how make conquoring the
>final frontier cheaper we aren't going to the stars any time soon.
I've an idea too, lets hybernize this discussion and defreeze it after a
century. No, without irony, a while ago I suggested something similar, but
the problem is that we cannot predict AT ALL what would be possible then, so
get back to Earth (figuratively) and try to use what we have.
>Space is the future. We stay on Earth, we eventually die of resource
>starvation (may take thousands of years but it will happen).
I don't think it will happen. Yeah ofcourse, billions will die (not just
because of old age) but thousands will survive (probably the ones with the
most money and the smartest brains)
>Too bad the
>American people won't get with the program. Nothing great was ever done
>easily.
Maybe Europe will take over after becoming united.
Timothy