But we are (finally, no thanks to Congress) getting closer.
3 thoughts on “The Space Age”
To enter a space age in the same sense in which we entered the jet age would require much cheaper energy to power the rockets…
Nah, we just need to stop throwing the rockets away. Propellant is cheap compared to rockets.
, better propulsion systems for moving between planets,
Nah, gravity does a pretty good job of moving stuff from one celestial body to another. High tech plasma thrusters, like the ones MSNW is working on, are cool, but we don’t need to wait for them. Or Stargates. Or Enterprises. We should go with the ships we have, just like everybody else who settled a frontier.
and an assortment of technological advances to make a space colony viable on another planet or moon.
This is a remarkably ambiguous statement. I think we need an acceleration lab in space, as we have data at 0g and 1g and nothing (for humans) in between. Other stuff would be cool, but if your primary goal is survival, which I think is true for most frontiers, that other stuff is not immediately necessary.
You will know we are in the space age when the following conversation occurs:
To enter a space age in the same sense in which we entered the jet age would require much cheaper energy to power the rockets…
Nah, we just need to stop throwing the rockets away. Propellant is cheap compared to rockets.
, better propulsion systems for moving between planets,
Nah, gravity does a pretty good job of moving stuff from one celestial body to another. High tech plasma thrusters, like the ones MSNW is working on, are cool, but we don’t need to wait for them. Or Stargates. Or Enterprises. We should go with the ships we have, just like everybody else who settled a frontier.
and an assortment of technological advances to make a space colony viable on another planet or moon.
This is a remarkably ambiguous statement. I think we need an acceleration lab in space, as we have data at 0g and 1g and nothing (for humans) in between. Other stuff would be cool, but if your primary goal is survival, which I think is true for most frontiers, that other stuff is not immediately necessary.
You will know we are in the space age when the following conversation occurs:
“I’ve been to space.”
“So what?”
Or
“I’ve been to space.”
“You should have studied harder in school.”