Re: starship-design: Casimir-Foreward balloon

[Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca>]

Connor wrote:
> 
> > Opinion: interstellar travel is impossible with today's technology.
> > Somebody has either got to figure out a way to build an extremely exotic
> > engine, preferably one that uses little to no reaction mass to operate, or
> > a sail-type vehicle that can work. We can't do much with the former, but we
> > can probably work on the latter.
> 
> Damn it, then why am I even on this list?? You just ruined it for everyone.
> 
> Connor
> chithree@boo.net

The keyword is "today's technology",  who knows what things tomorrow will bring.
Looking deep to the crystal ball I see ... um just tuesdays stock market quotes
well never mind that. 

The propulsion unit while still far from development, does not prevent good work
from 
being done. Look at the airplane, the wright brothers made it work because they
developed
wing lift tables, rather than perfecting motors,air frame,and other stuff while
important
was not as critical as the control and flight characteristics of the wings. They
got the
whole thing working and then improved on it.

We (as a people) have not left the earth so we really have nothing to build
upon, yet.
Who is to say one can't have a antimatter production stations in orbit around
the sun.
Interplanetary craft could use the solar wind. A stable plasma bottle that can
store large
amounts of power. Ok the antimatter production is my idea, but the other two
items have
are being actively worked on.

I don't expect to see a starship until the 23 century, but there is a lot of
good
work that needs to be done on the interplanetary and earth orbit fronts.
Big governments are not the way to go, nor is space exploration. One needs to
get
people working and LIVING in space 24-7 days a week. Now is the time to build 
small complexes on the ground, and explore space on the earth. Have a simple
agenda
but one that has a regular use of launch craft, and a well matched payload size.

I favor a two stage to orbit craft,(not yet designed) manned 1st stage to say
Mach 2?
Unmanned transport :Chemical fuel LOX,CH4 to mach 5? and above the atmosphere. 
Beamed energy for a undefined electrical engine to orbital speed. And of course
a large
space station, and the classic rotating ring , well octagon.


Ben.

-- 
"We do not inherit our time on this planet from our parents...
 We borrow it from our children."
"Where a calculator like the INCA is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and
 weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes
 and weigh only 1 1/2 tons."  Popular Mechanics, March 1949