5 thoughts on “Bootstrapping A Solar-System Civilization”

  1. -Encouraging thoughts from David Brin on what he calls the “best year for space since the 70s.”-:
    “How about a patent on a 20km tall inflated tower from which payloard can be more easily launched into orbit? This vision from Thoth Technology sounds exciting. Indeed… this is exactly what I described in 1980, in my novel Sundiver. ”

    That’s kind of interesting. But I tend to think what call a pipelauncher is
    more of near term thing. But idea of using the ocean to launch rockets seems like a likely future.
    Pipelauncher would made from metal- steel or aluminum, and perhaps the practical upper limit would be about 1 km tall.but one would probably start with 200 meter length and a smaller pipelauncher would accelerate a rocket [any size] to about 100 mph. In sense what such modest added speed does is act like one is launching from a higher elevation. Or idea is to get rocket into a more vacuum like environment quicker so rocket engine performs better.
    And with pipelauncher where it starts or is parked is no higher than any ship but it’s launching a rocket it’s higher that any structure on the ocean or higher than any building. So when it’s parked it withstand any type of hurricane, and when it’s launching a rocket you don’t do it in windy and stormy conditions. So in terms of weather, a pipelauncher would restricted as normal rocket launches are.
    I suppose one advantage of this 20 km tower is, if it can handle bad weather, one could launch rockets when there is bad weather- as you would more or less be above most of the bad weather.

    1. It could also make SSTOs more viable. I remember a Kistler presentation in the 90s where they planned to lift their SSTO to high altitude before igniting the engines, because that significantly increased the payload; there was little air drag to overcome, and they could use vacuum-optimized engines.

      That said, I guess it’s debatable whether an SSTO that needed to be lifted to high altitude was really ‘SSTO’.

  2. Watched 60 Minutes last night because the GF likes it. They interviewed Biden, and he was asked what special things he thought the Obama administration could accomplish in the last year of their term. He said “moon shot“, along with the usual pablum.

    Did he actually mean this, or was it in reference to some other government scheme?

      1. Thanks Rand. Biden seems like a nice guy except when he talks business (politics), then he’s all hat, no cattle.

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