Comments on: Dr. Vinge: We Must Reduce Launch Costs Now https://lifeboat.com/blog/2007/03/vinge-we-must-reduce-launch-costs-now Safeguarding Humanity Tue, 25 Apr 2017 11:51:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 By: PeakEngineer https://lifeboat.com/blog/2007/03/vinge-we-must-reduce-launch-costs-now#comment-1000 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:52:56 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=72#comment-1000 I think it is imperative that we work within the technology we currently have available. It is the same issue we face when discussing solutions to global warming or Peak Oil — there is no as-yet-undeveloped future technology that we can rely on with any certainty.
It may be expensive and inefficient to escape the planet with chemical rockets rather than anti-matter, but good lord, we have try with what we have!
I work for NASA, currently as a propulsion engineer on the aging space shuttles. Processing spacecraft is not easy business, but technical challenges are not what is keeping us from spreading into the solar system. The answer is funding — there is staggeringly little emphasis on giving our species a change for long-term survival. The resources are prioritized to short-term band-aids and the long emergencies are ignored. Prize programs such as mentioned above exist, but they are very limited in scope.
In short, the answer to making it happen is always the same: public support and funding.
–PeakEngineer
http://peakoildesign.com

]]> By: Brian Wang https://lifeboat.com/blog/2007/03/vinge-we-must-reduce-launch-costs-now#comment-833 Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:22:35 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=72#comment-833 we need to work on multiple parts of the access to space problem.

1. Do more with the weights we can launch now. Magnetically inflated large structures
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2006/03/other-tech-magnetically-inflated.html

http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/meetings/fellows/mar06/1133Powell.pdf

This can help enable large scale power gneration in orbit and on the moon. Being able to generate 100+MW with the matter of folding a structure into the nosecone of are heaviest lift rockets.

2. Place investments into multiple non-chemical rocket efforts.
Arrayed laser mirror launch systems
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-sol…s-for.html

Magbeam and hypersonic tethers for boosting vehicles going 7–10 mach up to orbit.
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2006/03/references-for-space-related.html

http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/maglev-assisted-launch.html

Look at minimag orion
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2006/12/colonizing-space-going-slower-and.html

3. Use more alternative funding such as prizes for successful milestones. Pay for success with prizes.

Do more to encourage competitive private development of space launch systems.

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