|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Cost to build Gerard K. O'Neill's "Island Three"
"Derek Lyons" wrote in message ... Quadibloc wrote: On Sep 26, 12:07 pm, Anne Onime wrote: If built, one of these would provide more land than all of New York City (roughly 314 square miles). There's lots of information online about these things, but one key thing is missing - the cost. What would it cost to build one? It would cost an absolutely insane amount of money to build directly, with materials hauled up from Earth... which, of course, is exactly why Gerard K. O'Neill did not advocate such a thing. And it would also cost an absolutely insane amount of money to build with non terrestrial materials too. In both cases, the cost comes not from launch costs (which drop radically when the you consider the large number required) from the absolutely insane infrastructure and support costs. D. -- Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh. No Government would be likely to ever support such a project. What may be more viable would be a Space Industrialization Initiative by a large company or group of companies, starting with (conservative) cislunar development. This may be contingent upon further advances in fusion technology, to the point where it would indeed be worth it to mine the Helium 3 from the lunar regolith. While you're there, you could also mine the cometary ice and metals from the moon; this could facilitate the construction of a small LaGrange point facility. At this stage of the game, it may not be too outlandish to speculate that we may have the capacity for a fusion pulse drive (much like the B.I.S. proposed Daedelus (sp?) project, utilizing inertial confinement of the Hydrogen and Helium-3) that would supplant the majority of the chemical rockets - this can further reduce costs and dramatically increase performance. At this point it may be considered potentially profitable to use the fusion pulse drive to grab one of the near-Earth Asteroids, maneuver it to the La Grange point facility, and begin the smelting (with solar mirrors) process in a large, slow-moving centrifuge to seperate the elements. Some would be used to expand the La Grange point facility, possibly to an Island-1-type colony; much of it could be foamed (for boyancy) and fashioned into large lifting bodies which would be tranported to Earth, enter the atmosphere and "spalsh-land" in the Pacific, where they would float and be towed by cargo ships to port, at which point they could be sliced-up and delivered to other processing facilities for sale to prospective clients. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Cost to build Gerard K. O'Neill's "Island Three"
On Nov 16, 9:28*pm, "Joseph S. Powell, III" wrote:
"Derek Lyons" wrote in message ... Quadibloc wrote: On Sep 26, 12:07 pm, Anne Onime wrote: If built, one of these would provide more land than all of New York City (roughly 314 square miles). There's lots of information online about these things, but one key thing is missing - the cost. What would it cost to build one? It would cost an absolutely insane amount of money to build directly, with materials hauled up from Earth... which, of course, is exactly why Gerard K. O'Neill did not advocate such a thing. And it would also cost an absolutely insane amount of money to build with non terrestrial materials too. *In both cases, the cost comes not from launch costs (which drop radically when the you consider the large number required) from the absolutely insane infrastructure and support costs. D. -- Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh. No Government would be likely to ever support such a project. What may be more viable would be a Space Industrialization Initiative by a large company or group of companies, starting with (conservative) cislunar development. This may be contingent upon further advances in fusion technology, to the point where it would indeed be worth it to mine the Helium 3 from the lunar regolith. While you're there, you could also mine the cometary ice and metals from the moon; this could facilitate the construction of a small LaGrange point facility. At this stage of the game, it may not be too outlandish to speculate that we may have the capacity for a fusion pulse drive (much like the B.I.S. proposed Daedelus (sp?) project, utilizing inertial confinement of the Hydrogen and Helium-3) that would supplant the majority of the chemical rockets - this can further reduce costs and dramatically increase performance. Although the near aneutronic fusion of He-3 is a desirable means of power production, it is much harder than D+T fusion -- which seems unlikely to appear in any actual power plant much before the end of the 21st Century. He-3 fusion is even farther out. The He-3 would have some value as a breeding material for tritium in addition to or instead of Li-6 though - it may make D+T fusion more practical. I can imagine having a He-3 doped helium coolant for the thermal blanket that breeds tritium. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Cost to build Gerard K. O'Neill's "Island Three" | Pat Flannery | Policy | 17 | October 6th 10 12:32 AM |
Cost to build Gerard K. O'Neill's "Island Three" | Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)[_1133_] | Policy | 35 | October 5th 10 08:05 PM |
Cost to build Gerard K. O'Neill's "Island Three" | Doug Freyburger | Policy | 0 | October 1st 10 04:23 PM |
"Concerned citizens" only hope for SPS......by Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill | jonathan | History | 242 | January 15th 07 07:14 PM |
"Concerned citizens" only hope for SPS......by Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill | jonathan | Astronomy Misc | 223 | January 15th 07 07:14 PM |