Zen and the Art of Space Colonization :)
FYI,
"Use of Near-Earth Space"
THE HINDU - India's premier newspaper
06-05-1999, Pg: 21, Col: c
http://www.webpage.com:80/hindu/daily/990506/08/08060001.htm
: By being in a near-Earth space, some of the
: facilities which have extensive potential for
: development but are yet to be exploited even to a
: microscopic scale (1) unlimited and unconstrained
: access to the full power emitted by the Sun, (2)
: in the absence of gravity and ability to build
: gigantic structures presently impossible on Earth,
: (3) special industrial manufacturing- processes that
: can take advantage of contamination and gravity-
: free, perfect, and infinite vacuum, and (4)
: availability of the space as a perfect black-body
: heat sink at a temperature of about 4 K which is
: ideally suited to apply the advances of
: superconductivity.
: Similarly, the space with its unlimited potential for
: developments in energy, materials, medicines, and
: other resources will eventually be colonised through
: the development of required technologies despite its
: hostility to life due to its vacuum, radiation, and
: extreme thermal conditions.
: S. Krishnan
: Professor of Aerospace Engineering
: IIT, Chennai-600036
This guy must have found a copy of Dr. Gerard O'Neil's "High Frontier."
Actually he did give a nice overview of space development that a layman
can understand.
--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Visit the Commercial Space Place Forum at
<http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/commercialspaceplace>
"I think we are all trying too hard to push space
versus finding the pulls that attract people and their money."
"The heavens reward great deeds, not excuses."