[AR] Re: 500,000 tons OFF TOPIC

  • From: James Bowery <jabowery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: arocket <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 11:54:40 -0500

On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 1:49 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 10:32 PM, James Bowery <jabowery@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> snip
> >
> > Moreover, I looked around and didn't find anyone bothering to debunk
> > O'Neill, Gerard K.; Driggers, G.; and O'Leary, B.: New Routes to
> > Manufacturing in Space. Astronautics and Aeronautics, vol. 18, October
> 1980,
> > pp. 46-51
> >
> Jim, I have not looked at that stuff for decades.  There is nothing
> technically wrong with it, but it's really out of date.  For example,
> there is no way anyone would build a mass driver today when a lunar
> elevator is so much less trouble.
>

A superconducting railgun might be easier than a lunar elevator.

The primary technical risks were, as I recall,

* The local machine intelligence required to compensate for the speed of
light delays on teleoperation.
* The mass driver.

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