by NickN » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:36 am
5 major problems in establishing a base off of earth
1. Food
2. Water
3. Breathable air
4. Climate control
5. Power source
HE-3 solves them all and we have known this since the return of Apollo 11. The reactor theory has been around since the 50's and originally it was expected to have been developed by the year 2000. Has it? Well, a good part of it has but it has not yet been developed to the point of establishing a stable reaction.
We can also create Antimatter.. yep, that stuff that makes the USS Enterprise in Star Trek shoot through space at warp speed but unfortunately the amount of money it would take to produce less than 1/4 teaspoon of antimatter would bankrupt the USA (and require the national deficit be zero too) but the resulting explosion from that amount of antimatter would vaporize the entire eastern seaboard off the map in a matter of seconds.
Antimatter is real, not science fiction.. Warping space for a spacecraft drive is a different subject and is SiFi... however a Tachyon based engine, although nothing but theory, is more probable than a space warp drive.
Even without a reactor HE-3 when simply heated to 600-900c gives you
2. Pure water
3. Pure O2
With those two elements you have an unlimited supply of goods you do not have to drag along into space and with that the only thing that must be done is establish 1. Food - greenhouse environment for growing food
Once the reactor technology is in place..
4. Climate Control
5. Power Source
established extraterrestrial bases in colony can begin on a regular basis
Between now and then the path back to the moon is robots.. and that is what will establish the first bases on the moon before we arrive in numbers.
I wont be around to see all this to a full completion but you youngsters will
On the way we can establish that orbital power platform suggested in the OP link.. but because we have already started the prcess of moving into space, building that system becomes easier because we have already overcome several expensive problems instead of trying to dive directly into it today.
We are not going to the moon and Mars to sight-see. This has been in the works for decades and the decision to go back and start manned space exploration was based on when the reactor technology will be ready and in place.
Them little remote control buggies rolling around mars are not just looking for signs of life... HE-3 and several other elements is one of their objectives and not something you are going to read about. The public is being fed the 'life on mars' story which is also an objective, just not the primary goal. Why would we spend millions to go look for fossils? We can do a better, more efficient job of that when we get there ourselves. There is more to it than that. Establishing we can go to these places with robots and do it within a reasonable budget was also one of the objectives.. and to see how long they could last.... the dust on the moon is much worse than dust on Mars so developing to hit Mars first and then the Moon with robots that can withstand the problems of mechanical failure in such dusty/harsh envionments makes more sense.
Next step...
Last edited by
NickN on Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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