4 ms·
I just got done reading Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez. The technology described and used in near future story of the book is based around this concept. Except
by nirav72 3y ago
I just got done reading Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez. The technology described and used in near future story of the book is based around this concept. Except in the book, they use it to power mass drivers to shoot cylinders of lunar regolith to a Lissajous orbit where it can be processed into raw materials.
- bglusman 3y agoCame here to say the same! Though it's a bit fun that when they upgrade the moon to use a nuclear reactor to power several mass drivers, they mention how the satellite can be repurposed to provide power to earth now... which makes sense. The book (and its part 1 book, Delta-V) overall point about the value and utility of asteroid and lunar mining to bootstrap whole economies around the Lagrange points and that sending that matter back down to earth makes very little sense was pretty compelling, and relatedly that building a colony on Mars probably makes very little sense vs building in space with artificial gravity and artificial radiation shielding, where you're not subject to a giant gravity well to go back to earth/elsewhere in solar system.