Comments on: Rockets, Blimps, and Teeth

By: starbadger

starbadger — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:42:26 +0000

Ia just don’t understand why more people don’t share your optimism about SPACE. Didn’t millions of people watch Star Trek. Right now on the Boat I’m watching DS9 Season Six.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:14:08 +0000

I’m not convinced that a shell is the way to go just because appropriate compressive strength combined with a stable frame would be hard to do… I think a tensigrity structure of some sort, using tensile strength (that is, suspending a vacuum bubble inside a frame of some sort) might be more do-able.

By: starbadger

starbadger — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:57:17 +0000

The fact

retain an atmosphere

By: starbadger

starbadger — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:55:43 +0000

Yes Shannon. But given the right “shell” material they wouldn’t collapse. They fact you could make them is “proof of concept”.

Then there are the five

Lagrangian Points

The opportunity awaits!

I like the idea of using an asteroid as a spaceship or a planet – why not Venus – It could remain an atmosphere while travelling near light speed.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:54:12 +0000

Starbadger/Richard – That reminds me, I have created silicone bubbles in my vacuum chamber that have a near vacuum on the inside, just a hair more pressure than the almost total vacuum around them in the chamber. Of course they collapse the instant I return the vacuum chamber to ambient pressures.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:53:02 +0000

I did see it, yeah… But unfortunately pandering to space enthusiasts is something EVERY politician has done. Didn’t Bush promise us a Mars program and give us a couple wars instead?

I do believe that Newt is a genuine space geek, but I have trouble believing that any candidate is any more likely than another to properly fund the space program… Sadly…

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:48:48 +0000

Don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, (not sure how much you follow the US republican primaries) but I thought it might interest you: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145896268/foreign-policy-fly-me-to-the-moon

By: starbadger

starbadger — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:07:14 +0000

Yes. It will happen. My guess is that the vacuum will be contained in small spheres the size of tennis balls. Maybe larger maybe smaller. Easy to do a thought experiment as to how easy to manufacture – on the moon. One more reason to get back to the moon and the advantage of being there being the economy of manufacturing things in a near-vacuum. Yes.

Note to Elizabeth. You are such an idiot. But then so was Eva Braun. I love you doodles.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:30:44 +0000

lol sorry but I giggled at the end.
Christopher (oldest of the 3) is all about this, my eyes glaze. I’m REALLY enjoying terra firma.