Re: GZGL FH - Habitats in Space.

On Thu, 3 Dec 1998, Colfox wrote:
> > (running a more or less continual employee bus up and down the
elevator)

> I can't find my source at the moment, but IIRC, while elevators into
orbit
> are feasible, the trip would take several hours.  I don't remember how
many
> exactly, but it's enough that commuting to and from work this way
would not
> work.  

this has recently been pointed out to me. apparently, a two-hour commute
would take a 12 000 mph train ...

> My $.02, if we need large manufacturing facilities in space, and we
don't
> have any living habitats out there, they will be manned like the oil
> platforms now (big bucks pay, and work a couple months--off a couple
> months).

yes, this is probably a good method. so, it looks like space habitats
are
going to be around after all (well, unless we can get that 12 000 mph
train going ...). this is a good thing.

> Eventually, I would hope that any workers would live at a moonbase. 
Much
> easier to live there (and build), and much shallower gravity well to
climb
> out of to get to work.

but would it be any quicker? i don't know that the shallower well helps
all that much, as the moon is further away and energy is likely to be
more
expensive there. i think the following scenarios are possible:

(i) no elevator, no cheap shuttles; workers live in space
(ii) slow elevators; workers live for 3 months at a stretch in oil-rig
style habitat
(3) fast elevators; workers commute

it's funny; the better we are able to exploit space, the less we need to
live there. maybe people will live in space voluntarily, as that is what
three generations of ancestors have done. the rise of _Homo sapiens
astronauticus_ beckons ...

Tom