starship-design: realistic travel.

["Ben Franchuk (Woodelf)" <bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca>]

Looking at the crystal ball I see ... ( dam it fogged again and I am out of
quarters ),
that it takes several long steps to from fiction to fact. 

1) The dream
2) The idea
3) The R&D stage
4) The Early development
5) Practical use
6) Wide Spread use.

Each step requires the same amount of effort but many things can block the
goals.
With inter-stellar star ship design still at the idea stage,It is hard to say
what
developments will be make it practical. Inter-solar travel will have a strong
impact on what can and is practical, of inter-stellar travel. I can see unmanned
probes travelling to the stars when we travel to the planets. Inter-solar travel
will depend on contruction on Mars. Mars devlopment will depend on lunar-earth
space stations. The space stations will depend on the type of Single stage to
orbit launch craft. SSTO craft will need a "sane" and steady payload.
With a SSTO payload about the size of regular truck, this will take a lot of
planning.
I see a fleat of 5 small trucks and 2 larger trucks rough figure.
So lets see some inter-solar designs to plan the inter-stelar craft.

Design in very small peices but think big.

Ben.

PS remember it was the Small computer that developed todays computer,
not some main frame collecting dust. ( Where have all the saturn 5,s gone?)