Re: starship-design: Re: Perihelion Maneuver (fwd)

[kuo@bit.csc.lsu.edu (Isaac Kuo)]

(this e-mail was intended to go to the entire list)

kuo wrote:
>From kuo Mon Dec  1 23:37:36 1997
>Subject: Re: starship-design: Re: Perihelion Maneuver
>To: lparker@cacaphony.net (L. Parker)
>Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 23:37:36 -0600 (CST)
>In-Reply-To: <01BCFE82.AABF5240.lparker@cacaphony.net> from "L. Parker" at Dec 1, 97 05:41:18 pm
>X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
>Content-Type: text
>Content-Length: 1499      
>
>L. Parker wrote:
>
>>Well, actually I think you are both right. But it isn't just a matter of 
>>time. It is a matter of economics and above all, politics. Those sorts of 
>>arguments did not stop the Apollo program, which in hind sight if we had 
>>waited twenty years, we COULD have done much easier and quicker.
>
>Actually, if we had waited twenty years, we could at best have gotten
>there 10 years slower.
>
>>I have no problem with unmanned probes at 0.1 c, I have already stated on 
>>this forum that we need to start sending out unmanned probes at 0.03 c 
>>right now...so that we will be getting meaningful information back in fifty 
>>years or so.
>
>What is 1.5 light years away that we want meaningful information
>from?  Anyway, I don't see any way we can launch something at .03c
>today.  Maybe a magsail with hydrogen bomb track in a decade or so,
>but that's really really iffy.
>
>>What I don't believe in is human interstellar travel at those velocities. 
>>Hardware is cheap, life isn't. Unless we can push the 99% c envelope, we 
>>aren't going to be able to do it.
>
>I disagree.  If I were offered the chance to fly on a 1 way mission
>to the Alpha Centauri systems at .2c (where I'd then spend the rest
>of my life), I for one would jump at it.  I'm sure there are many
>others who'd be just as excited to do so.
>-- 
>    _____     Isaac Kuo kuo@bit.csc.lsu.edu http://www.csc.lsu.edu/~kuo
> __|_)o(_|__
>/___________\ "Mari-san...  Yokatta...
>\=\)-----(/=/  ...Yokatta go-buji de..." - Karigari Hiroshi
>


-- 
    _____     Isaac Kuo kuo@bit.csc.lsu.edu http://www.csc.lsu.edu/~kuo
 __|_)o(_|__
/___________\ "Mari-san...  Yokatta...
\=\)-----(/=/  ...Yokatta go-buji de..." - Karigari Hiroshi