|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Questions about "The High Frontier"
So I just got through O'Neill's "The High Frontier". There seem to be
some philosophical inconsistencies -- O'Neill claims to be promoting individual freedoms and small-scale economies by building monolithic power satellites and kilometer-scale orbiting cities, for instance -- but that's neither here nor there. What really bothers me is that the entire scheme seems too much like something out of a Rube Goldberg cartoon. "We'll build a base on the Moon to deliver material to Earth orbit -- and we'll need at least some mining ships scouting the asteroids for water and organics too -- which will be used to build a 3-million ton, 10,000-man space station the size of Manhattan; then that will build 80,000-ton satellites, and those will transmit solar power back to Earth." (He offers other justifications for his "Islands" -- building space telescopes, for example -- but it seems that we've achieved most of those goals already without them.) I suppose I want to start off by asking, "Would a Solar Power Satellite work in the first place?" I know that the idea has gotten a lot of flak recently; is it still viable or just hopeless? |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
The "experts" strike again... :) :) :) "Direct" version of my "open Service Module" on NSF | gaetanomarano | Policy | 0 | August 17th 07 02:19 PM |
Great News! Boulder High School CWA "panelists" could be infor it! | Starlord | Amateur Astronomy | 0 | June 2nd 07 09:43 PM |
"VideO Madness" "Pulp FictiOn!!!," ...., and "Kill Bill!!!..." | Colonel Jake TM | Misc | 0 | August 26th 06 09:24 PM |
why no true high resolution systems for "jetstream" seeing? | Frank Johnson | Amateur Astronomy | 11 | January 9th 06 05:21 PM |