X-Message-Number: 18896 From: Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 10:52:25 EST Subject: never laugh at live asteroids, Bilbo --part1_167.bb69004.29e073b9_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Oh, my! 877 years! Do you think we'll figure out space travel by then? Gosh! We "figured out space travel" in 1965 when the NERVA nuclear engines were tested for hours at a time out in the desert. Not only is a NERVA engine more efficient than a chemical engine, it can use practically anything for reaction mass. So NERVA spacecraft could run for years on water from the ex-comets that are now Apollo-Amor asteroids, carbon dioxide from Mars, or whatever. Unfortunately we haven't figured out how to limit government enough so that private companies can actually own nuclear engines, asteroids, other space property, etc. And that could easily take 877 years. Don't invest in any coastal property till then.... --part1_167.bb69004.29e073b9_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18896