I thought I should make it clear that in the space race it won't be the one with the most money and most expensive machinery but the one with the SMARTEST. There is an old adage... NASA spent millions developing a pen that could write in zero gravity. Russia uses a pencil.
Nowadays, private companies are flying military satellite into space so the war for space is definitely being "won" by the United States. Of course, it helps that the US Military has the largest budget for military in recorded history... for ALL the top dictatorships/militaries on the planet! (such spending must be a factor in military escalation around the world - the US has 900 bases! That's crazy!)
The methods that we are using to reach space are derived from ideas that are over a century old:
"Tsiolkovsky not only solved theoretically such age-old questions as how to escape from the Earth’s atmosphere and gravitational field, but he also described several rockets. The first, conceived in 1903, was to be powered by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen—a very modern propellant combination . . . [Tsiolkovsky] made another discovery—the multistage rocket, which he called the ‘rocket train.’ Actually, this concept was not as new as Tsiolkovsky, who discovered it independently, thought; firework makers had used the principle for at least 200 years. But Tsiolkovsky was the first to analyze the idea in a sophisticated manner. The multistage technique, he concluded, was the only feasible means by which a space vehicle could attain the velocity necessary to escape from the Earth’s gravitational hold" (Von Braun & Ordway, History of Rocketry and Space Travel [1975] 42).
This is the direction the future of space flight must go for cheap, individual space craft to be developed. i.e. planes not rockets...
1. We have planes that can fly at over 60 miles above the ground.
2. Already rockets are becoming out of date... "Earlier this month, the two of them said they will build an air-launched orbital delivery system. To do this, Paul Allen’s company Stratolaunch Systems will have to build the world’s largest aeroplane."
3. The US military has already reached Mach 5 level for missles & countries such as India & Russia are working on Mach 7 missiles. How long can it be before we have cheap single pilot planes, that can attain space flight without rockets, technologically and commercially feasible?
Useful for space living...
This new and incredible device (in the video below) reminds me of a replicator from Star Trek with a bit of 'teleporter' type functionality (i.e. scan an item miles away and recreate/replicate at home). Of course, it's alot safer (in my opinion) than actual teleportation as you don't destroy anything before recreating it..i.e. "Teleportation involves dematerializing an object at one point, and sending the details of that object's precise atomic configuration to another location, where it will be reconstructed."
The Colbert Report
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Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Here is an article on one of the recent teleportation developments:
"Physics and magic aren't often mistaken, but increasingly, physicists themselves seem to be trying to change that. Last year, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, announced that it had developed materials that could lead to an invisibility cloak. Last month, a group of researchers at Harvard University and the National Institutes of Health reported that it had accomplished something not unlike levitation, causing a microscopic sphere of gold to rise above a glass surface. Now, according to a paper published in the Jan. 23 issue of Science, a team of scientists from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) at the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan has joined the fun. The current bit of legerdemain? Teleportation."
Imagine being able to live on a moon base AND get objects you may need sent wirelessly through your replicating device for which you grow your own raw materials. i.e. you will save a ton of money in transportation, mining, food, clothing, paper and construction costs...
Hemp Can Be Used To Make Plastic Stronger Than Steel, Paper, Textiles, Oil, Non-Toxic Medicine, Cement... & Tornado Shelters!
