ONE SMALL STEP . . .

@roger,

Quote:

I remember Campbell and Analog

I even remember that I hear of Campbell death when listening to a New York City radio talk show in the AM hours while working on a railroad drawbridge.

Campbell death and the writer H.B. Piper suicide both hit me as hard as if it had happen to a family member.

The world of science fiction cause me to go into engineering as my career.

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@JTT,

Is there any wacky conspiracy theory you don't buy?

I would love to be aboard the first manned flight to Mars, and set foot on the Red Planet, but even with your sterling endorsement, the chance of that happening is, of course, virtually nil. Unless scientists find a life-span enhancer, there is no chance I'll ever get to take a commercial flight to the moon or mars.

There's a chance that we've already found life on Mars:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-nasa-viking-program-mars-life-space-science/

Thin of it J! With a means to extend longevity, and with life on Mars, not only can most of the current USians muck up the world for many more years to come, we can muck up Mars too!

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@Finn dAbuzz,

The sad part is that we have had the engineering means of placing thousands of tons repeat thousands of tons on the surface of Mars since the 1970s or even the 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

I would love to be aboard the first manned flight to Mars, and set foot on the Red Planet,

I would love you to be on the first manned flight to Mars, especially as it's going to be a one way trip.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

Is there any wacky conspiracy theory you don't buy?

Is there any wacky assumption you don't make?

Quote:

would love to be aboard the first manned flight to Mars, and set foot on the Red Planet, but even with your sterling endorsement, the chance of that happening is, of course, virtually nil. Unless scientists find a life-span enhancer, there is no chance I'll ever get to take a commercial flight to the moon or mars.

No ****, O voluble one.

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@BillRM,

nuclear pace ships probably wont be used to get the junk into Low Earth Orbit from the ground, too many ssafety issues that cannot be GUARANTEED.
A joint program wiith a few nations would probably result in a "rocket" for interplanetary travel that would take off from orbit. Id imagine that the fuel would be taken in smaller batches until some critical mass desired is reached.
I remember reading about someone proposing an "atomic jet plane" for hypersonic travel between longer distances. That went over like "lead underwear" by the time the health and safety crews got ahold of it.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Quote:

too many ssafety issues that cannot be GUARANTEED.

We would likely to be still in the caves without even fire if the safety first crowd was in power back then.

Hell even railroads was death traps in the beginning for a numbers of reasons and in one engineering magazine back in the 1870s they gave the figure of eighty railroad engine boilers blowing up on average a year and of course there was the thousands soldiers killed on the way home after the civil war due the river boat they was on blowing up due to the boiler.

Be that as it may I have a faint hope that someone like the Chinese would dust off the idea and give us access to the solar system with colonies on the moon and Mars and at Lagrangian points plus asteroids mining.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

You and JTT think alike, but he beat you to it.

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@BillRM,

Quote:

Hell even railroads was death traps in the beginning for a numbers of reasons and in one engineering magazine back in the 1870s they gave the figure of eighty railroad engine boilers blowing up on average a year and of course there was the thousands soldiers killed on the way home after the civil war due the river boat they was on blowing up due to the boiler.

todays legal system will not tolerate that level of risk taking. We have generally become a very risk averse people, which will strangle advancement of civilization. You are right that it is up to the Chinese and others to take the lead.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

You and JTT think alike, but he beat you to it.

Find Abuzz, that 's a terrible insult against Izzy.
That 's hitting below the belt. That not fair.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Is there any wacky assumption you don't make, Finn?

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@Finn dAbuzz,

On this particular issue I would imagine most people who have had dealings with you think like me.

I don't know what JTT thinks, while you and he are exchanging billets doux, I have him on ignore.

If he beat me to it, why is my post above his?

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

You are right that it is up to the Chinese and others to take the lead

Im sure the Chinese will do something really stupid like flying a bigass nuclear powered rocket from the land to low earth orbit. They only demonstrate a concern for safety and human life after someone catches them in the act of doing something toxic (like making pet and baby foods laced with diazo and amine compounds in order to artificially "beef up " phony protein concentrations.

Flying into space from NEO on into the galaxy is possible using nuke engines, doing it from earth isn't "risk averseness" It is merely demonstrating good common sense.

Men used to sit with their dynamite charges in mines to make sure they would "hit properly" and would only run when mot of the fuse was lit.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Quote:

I have him on ignore.

If he beat me to it, why is my post above his?

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@hawkeye10,

Near Philly We have a burial site where over 50 Irish railroad laborers were interred after they were blown to small chunks while setting charges to make a roadcutting for a track section. they were sacrificed in order to keep time and schedule for track laying and nothing happened. No-one even lost a job.

"Safety guys" may look like excessive concern to the nonparticipants but Im sure the families of the employees would like to know that wed done everything possible to insure health nd safety. (The missions are dangerous enough so why add even more independent variables)

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Quote:

I don't know what JTT thinks,

Izzy: I've learnt a lot from JTT,

http://able2know.org/topic/210848-1

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@izzythepush,

If you have him on ignore, how do you know where his similar post sits?

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Quote:

Flying into space from NEO on into the galaxy is possible using nuke engines, doing it from earth isn't "risk averseness" It is merely demonstrating good common sense.

Farmerman it is getting into low earth orbit through the atmosphere with hundreds/thousands of tons is where you need the sheer power of nuclear engines.

Once you are in low earth orbit you are more then half way to any part of the solar system energy wise.

Take note that the first two stages of the moon ships and by far the bulk of the take-off weight was used up in getting into earth orbit.

If you are in no hurry from low earth orbit you could used solar sails or high impulse low thrust plasma rockets to reach any other location in the solar system.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

When we was building the transcontinental railroad gun powder was not powerful enough to blast through the mountains and dynamite was not available yet so some poor fools needed to used what would do the job pure nitroglycerin.

The only known means that would allow us to claim every part of the solar system now is nuclear rockets.

If we have always waited for safe means to do what we desire to do we all would still be in the caves.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

It's hardly rocket science. You posted that you'd love to go on the first manned mission to Mars. Then BillRM posted a link to Wikipedia, after that I posted my response to you. Then it's (on my screen at least) user ignored. If I run my cursor over it, it says JTT.

In any event the only poster between your post and my reply is BillRM.

I can't believe you really need it spelling out like this. Is this what you're like in real life? No wonder you have to tip big.

1 Reply

ONE SMALL STEP . . .

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