Space program

The idea of a citizen's space program, as opposed to a government or corporate one, appeals to me. It is of course ridiculous, but one can do worse than play. If nothing else, it might shame governments into being a little more forward-thinking about making it into the space age.

On how to get into space:

• Rocketless orbit,
• The Crazy Eddie Project,
• Elevator to Space,

On what to do once you get there:

• Cylinder Ships,
• lac Lagrange

and, in support of any or all: relevant properties of some materials.

See Also

• The Gateway Foundation aims to build a rotating space-station out of modules, so that it can gradually grow. It's hoping to persuade goverments to run lotteries – with trips to the station as eventual prizes – to fund building it.
• Star of Tolerance (link broken 2004/June)
• Cosmos 1, a solar-sailing project of The Planetary Society.
• A space-craft could also use a magnetic sail, deflecting solar (or interstellar) wind, or interacting with the magnetic field of a planet.
• JP Aerospace, with plans to fly airships into space, is a volunteer-based space program, very much along the lines of what I'm describing here – and actually running missions to the edge of space since 1999.
• Tethers Unlimited implements technologies that enable low-cost orbital manoeuvring using electromagnetic and momentum exchange tethers. The the former tether, a cable hanging off a satellite, is radially aligned by tidal forces; currents in it can couple to Earth's magnetic field to produce forces the satellite can exploit to manoeuvre. The latter tether connects two objects in orbit; tension in it transfers momentum between the two objects; combined with the difference in local gravity between the two ends, this can be exploited in diverse ways. Neil Stephenson's novel Anathem exploits both to get some characters stealthily into a desired orbit.
• On a lighter note, Paul Krugman wrote, allegedly in 1978, a satirical paper The Theory of Interstellar Trade, which does give good grounds to anticipate that interstellar trade in material goods would mostly be uneconomic.

The road to space becomes even more important to us now that we are within reach of an end to aging and endless fertility.

Update: mid-summer, 2004 (I think actually the day before the solstice), the first non-government astronaut made it to space and safely home again, aboard SpaceShipOne. Other exciting developments are afoot, as well.

My older brother was born the day after Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth. I was born nine days after Valentina Tereshkova did the same. (She was the first and youngest woman to do so and the only woman to have been on a solo space mission. Her daughter Elena is the only person whose parents had both been space-travellers.)

Written by Eddy.