RE: starship-design: Never ever lasting (was: What is safest?)

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

On Saturday, January 10, 1998 1:11 PM, Timothy van der Linden 
[SMTP:TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl] wrote:
> Explorers of the past also had to take equipment to keep stuff running.
> Even
> the fact that we won't have access to raw materials while cruising has a
> quite good analog for the ocean travelers who didn't have much more than
> salt water as an external source.
>
> So indeed unless we're making a voyage that (in relative sense) is
> shorter
> than that of past explorers we'll need to carry repair and manufacturing
> equipment.
>
Lewis and Clark carried an iron framed collapsible boat with them on their 
journey across America in 1805. They had to abandon it at the Upper Portage 
of the Great Falls of the Missouri River in Montana "because they lacked 
materials - pine pitch and needles for sewing hides together - necessary 
for making the vessel watertight".

We don't have such an option....

Lee