Re: starship-design: Infrastructure in space [was: FTL travel...]

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/21/00 10:25:33 AM, clmanges@worldnet.att.net writes:

>> >
>> Of course, you are right, Kelly, when speaking of building
>> a single orbital station (or possibly even some tens of them),
>> or a single interstellar ship (and unmanned for that -
>> you cannot send people for tens of years journey through space without
>> prior experience with long-living self-sufficient space habitats).
>> However, the really permanent presence of mankind in space
>> (including long-duration long-range interstellar travel)
>> cannot be assured without building industrial and settlement
>> infrastructure in space (meaning outside Earth) as well.
>> You better start to think how to build it as fast as possible,
>> instead of finding only excuses for postponing it toward some
>> "better future". Otherwise, the "better future" never happens...
>
>This is all going to be tricky, I think. The commercial/industrial-scale
>infrastructure will be needed to establish and maintain settlement and
>profitability, but nobody will want to pay for it all up front, and I don't
>see how
>it could become profitable until it's established -- a catch-22 of sorts.
>But once
>it is established, there will be a market shift; first profits will go
>dirtside to
>pay the investment, but then the settlement will become its own internal
>market,
>like a new country, and these profit exchanges will overlap somewhat.
>
>This brings up a question of law and administration, of course, and who
>has rights
>to what. That will be a simple matter of contract and treaty _until_ someone
>up
>there sees that they have the resources to become autonomous; then the
>real fun
>begins.
>
>It really looks as if someone's going to have to grab their bootstraps
>and give a
>good yank . . .

Its just like every other colony or city ever founded.  It needs to trade 
with others to survive.  It needs to develope trade to even be founded.  
Thats why about all major cities ae on trade routes.

Kelly