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Space Without the Space
- tompccs 5y agoInteresting perspective. The solar system seems like an easily exhaustible frontier.
- nynx 5y agoI think people will be happier about turning the rest of the solar system into o'neil cylinders than they would of Earth. There's plenty of potential volume, it's just not in the right form yet.
- peter303 5y agoSome of the other planets are mapped at better resolution than Earth, especially underseas. Part of this was a prohibition of Earth Observing satellites during the past two republican administrations, because that data might support climate change and environmentalism.
- perilunar 5y agoIt's not easily exhaustible. There's enough material in the asteroids alone to support trillions of people. Solid surface area is not relevant — we aren't going to be settling the surfaces.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ncmncm 5y agoThe upper atmospheres of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are left out. Curiously, standing G force in all three is just about equal to what we are used to. The planets are big but not dense. You can make a vehicle that stays up for years in them with just a big fabric bag and a naked atomic pile hanging in the middle near the bottom, no moving parts. The air (hydrogen) around the pile absorbs the radiation and rises; you adjust buoyancy by venting some of it. It would be hard to get back to orbit from any of those. You might need a skyhook.
- ncmncm 5y agoAlso: venting through a turbine generates power, one moving part.