3 ms·
This seems more complicated than just traveling in an off-road vehicle, and for not much gain.
by xwdv 5y ago
This seems more complicated than just traveling in an off-road vehicle, and for not much gain.
- nawgz 5y agoI will be impressed by whatever vehicle exists that can travel thru space, climb rocks of uncontrolled steepness or terrain, traverse fluids, and do it all with a human survivable cockpit with safety guarantees. Much more impressed than with a rocket like spaceX already has today, say
- m4rtink 5y agoAirless off-road vehicles will have unique challenges - terrain with very sharp edges due to no wind or fluid erosion, all shadows being almost perfectly dark due to no atmospheric diffusion, only radiative cooling of all components or even long lasting plumes of dust (especially on low g airless worlds) obscuring vision.
- bserge 5y agoSo, the M35 Mako from Mass Effect. Elon should get on it.
- abecedarius 5y agoThe net energy cost of ballistic travel in vacuum can be arbitrarily low. The post talks about rockets, but that's not the only way.
- keyle 5y agoI don't know much about this but I'd be keen to hear what alternatives to rockets there would be on the moon to get off the rock? Are you implying one-off ballistic shots?
- abecedarius 5y agoThrowing and catching are reversible operations, like a regenerative brake in an electric car. Even if your tech is too crude for a regenerative catcher, at the throwing end you could still finesse the rocket equation with a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_(structure) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_(structure)