Re: Re: Re: starship-design: Re: Re: debate

[Kelly St <KellySt@aol.com>]

In a message dated 12/12/97 12:58:59 PM, kuo@bit.csc.lsu.edu wrote:

>>>If you honestly think so, then why do you care at all about this
>>>starship design list's concept?  According to your thinking, there
>>>is no chance that anything we come up with will be anything even
>>>remotely like what would be worth sending to the stars.
>
>>True, in the same way the lunar systems designed by the british
interplanetary
>>society most of a century ago, or those designed by VonBraun in the '50's,
>>bore little relation to to the apollo systems.  But it did show you could go
>>to the moon with those technologies.
>
>That's what I think we should be doing.  We aren't here to try and
>come up with what we think will be the design of the first manned
>interstellar missions.  That's hopeless.
>
>What we should try to be doing is trying to find the best thing
>possible using as conservative technology possible just as a
>baseline to see if it's possible at all, and at what maximum cost.
>(Improvements in science and technology will necessarily reduce
>the mission cost, if our baseline uses only existing technology
>at existing cost.)



Thats pretty much what we've been doing for the last 4 years.

Kelly