Philip Ragan

It should be interesting to note that a space elevator or space lift does not necessarily have to be anchored at the equator. The best places around the world are spots in the oceans that have low storm and lightning activity, as shown on a map in a book called "Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator by Bradley Edwards and Philip Ragan." In fact on of the best spots in the world for a Space Lift is several hundred kilometers west of Perth in Western Australia. Even with the new rockets that are coming on line now, access to space will still be expensive, as in thousands of dollars per kilo to geostationary orbit. Only the Space lift will be capable of dropping the cost down to 50 or 100 USD per kilo with a far improved safety margin. For one thing a lift is not likely to explode because of all the volatile fuel on board or burn up upon reentry to the atmosphere. It is at that point that we can seriously consider large scale habitats in space.

There was a twang of nostalgia and memories of a childhood growing up in the early 80s when I saw the pic of the toroidal space city. I may have enthusiastically lapped this stuff up when I was 7 or 8, and believed that I was going to end my days living in a space colony. I'm older and more cynical now - and well enough educated - to recognise a towering pile of techno-crap fantasy when I see it. More holes in it than a Swiss cheese. Of course, all our cities are already in space. Why would we be stupid enough to abandon cruise liner Earth for dinghy space city? I hope all the super-rich bog off leaving the rest of us wealthier.… (mer)