Not Only Money

SPACE.com -- Europe Unveils Space Plane for Tourist Market

We've been discussing this a bit, naturally which led Paul to consider the money aspect of building things in space.  However, money is just a part of the problem. 

I probably don't have to mention that Space is not the Earth.  Even if you can get your cost to LEO down to the cents or dollars range (which to a certain extent probably isn't necessarily technically impossible, just implausible) you've a bunch of other problems that crop up.

Firstly, its not a pleasant environment out there.  You've temperature cycles that lead to some interesting stress cycles on your materials.  You've micro-meteor and other debris hits to consider.  You've no local resources to easily exploit, at least in LEO you don't - planetary and moon surfaces bring up some other considerations too.

Even if you can lift things cheaply, you're going to be constrained on Mass and Volume mostly because you have to figure out how to get the stuff intact through the soup we call an atmosphere, and then do something practical with it there.  There will be some practical limitations on those items and how frequently you launch.  So you're going to have a marshalling and logistical headache in a poor environment where everything is pretty much out to kill you.

Then, unlike the Earth, the second hand property market is going to be limited.  Simply put, structures we're likely to be building in the near future are going to have a shelf life.  It's not a case of putting a new roof on your log cabin and its good enough.  It has to protect you from radiation, from heat and cold, keep the air inside and circulating and a bunch of other stuff.  I've done some process pipe design and try as I might coming up with easy to maintain stuff that can be repaired and replaced in confined modules in LEO doesn't seem easy to me in the slightest.

Even then, even if you can build your orbital "towns" out of small(ish) cheap to lift modules, when you get "out there" there are other problems.  We just don't know what the health problems associated with long term exposure to lunar soil are.  We can guess, and it ain't pretty.  Same thing for Mars.

There are so many many challenges to living and developing space that I just don't see it happening without a government.  I just don't.

Off a travelling we go...

So, off to Vancouver tomorrow to see what all the "World's Best City" stuff is about.  Meeting M's sister there and bringing her back here for a couple of days.  Not looking forward to dealling with that at the border I must say.

Then next Thursday we're off on our Hols.  The itinerary is looking something like this:
Thursday - drive to Grants Pass (7 hours ish)
Friday - drive to somewhere in California (7 hours ish)
Saturday - drive to San Diego (5-6 hours ish)
 - stay there until Monday PM - I'm going to do some work there too
Monday - drive to south LA; BBQ with friends
Tuesday - Saturday - hanging around the Bay area and wine country
Saturday - off to see somewhere on the CA coast north of SF
Sunday - off to see giant trees and then on to Crater Lake in Oregon
Monday - Portland
Tuesday - Home in time for 4th July

Looking forward to it actually.  Fortunately M had a tax rebate in the UK which at the current exchange rates pretty much pays for the holiday.

Lonesome tonight..

M is off doing something South African in a pub somewhere and I've decided that I'll take a rain check...

What exciting things could I otherwise be doing tonight?  Suggestions???