There are many intelligent people on this board, with much more knowledge about infrastructure design, potential health concerns, etc. than I have. But I am a dreamer that has accomplished much in life just by keeping my nose to the grind stone and always moving forward. I have never let a challenge go untried!
I have seen new buildings constructed that were built with all the bells and whistles, considered the most technologically innovative structure ever made at that moment of time. But a mere year later, as other technologies became available, trying to retro-fit that building with the newest wiring or gadets became so difficult that it was not worth the investment. On the other hand, I have seen cheap square boxes erected with simple raised floors, all of the money was put into the infrastructure with no regard or investment made in high-tech cosmetic fluff. Years later these cheap buildings are still capable of being retro-fitted with the latest and greatest, ROI is an owners dream!
Whatever time it takes, however long it would take, would it not be practical to build such an economically cheap, very massive facility in LEO, so that when construction is finally complete all that is required to do is to retro-fit it with the latest modular equipment prior to departure? And if a few years down the road if equipment becomes obsolete, simply swap it out with smaller, lighter, more advanced components. And once built, all that would be required to push it out to Mars/Jupiter orbit would be to retro-fit it with a small but appropriate engine, since the structure will already be in space.
I can envision such a project. But this would swing completely opposite of current trend, and return to what made this country proud and prosperous almost a century ago, when business owners and investors planned and built for the long term. I can see an enormous structure built, including the simple-in-design centrifugal counterpart to go along with it. I can see this construct frequented by rotating teams of scientists, not only from the U.S., but from other countries willing to rent or donate possibly in the form of additional high-tech equipment, or replenishing materials launched with their own smaller craft.
I feel that the small maneuvers of the past couple of decades that have cost so much money, some of which were cancelled half-way through after spending millions/billions, has stagnated our ability to not only dream about the future, but to work specifically toward it.
IMO, directly contacting your state representative to voice your preference of 1 out of only 2 choices will still sell us short. IMO, sending up many, many robotic missions that focus only on a handful of experiments each only contributes to political grandstanding (even though we have learned somewhat from such experiments) and delaying what could potentially catapault us into a much brighter future.
I yield for comments.
I have seen new buildings constructed that were built with all the bells and whistles, considered the most technologically innovative structure ever made at that moment of time. But a mere year later, as other technologies became available, trying to retro-fit that building with the newest wiring or gadets became so difficult that it was not worth the investment. On the other hand, I have seen cheap square boxes erected with simple raised floors, all of the money was put into the infrastructure with no regard or investment made in high-tech cosmetic fluff. Years later these cheap buildings are still capable of being retro-fitted with the latest and greatest, ROI is an owners dream!
Whatever time it takes, however long it would take, would it not be practical to build such an economically cheap, very massive facility in LEO, so that when construction is finally complete all that is required to do is to retro-fit it with the latest modular equipment prior to departure? And if a few years down the road if equipment becomes obsolete, simply swap it out with smaller, lighter, more advanced components. And once built, all that would be required to push it out to Mars/Jupiter orbit would be to retro-fit it with a small but appropriate engine, since the structure will already be in space.
I can envision such a project. But this would swing completely opposite of current trend, and return to what made this country proud and prosperous almost a century ago, when business owners and investors planned and built for the long term. I can see an enormous structure built, including the simple-in-design centrifugal counterpart to go along with it. I can see this construct frequented by rotating teams of scientists, not only from the U.S., but from other countries willing to rent or donate possibly in the form of additional high-tech equipment, or replenishing materials launched with their own smaller craft.
I feel that the small maneuvers of the past couple of decades that have cost so much money, some of which were cancelled half-way through after spending millions/billions, has stagnated our ability to not only dream about the future, but to work specifically toward it.
IMO, directly contacting your state representative to voice your preference of 1 out of only 2 choices will still sell us short. IMO, sending up many, many robotic missions that focus only on a handful of experiments each only contributes to political grandstanding (even though we have learned somewhat from such experiments) and delaying what could potentially catapault us into a much brighter future.
I yield for comments.
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