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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Do we need a shuttle?
« on: 24/07/2011 22:30:34 »The spacefountain is a nice alternative to a lift, but similar unrealistic. Seeing that no spacefaring species was observed by now, we can conclude that the sky is pretty much cradle and graveyard in one. From time to time some live gets going, does its first technological steps, encounters heavy difficulties with found technology, the high walls that are the gravity wells and lightspeed, and even more dangerous, its very own sociological structures (look at humanity, we barely get a stable, advancing society in country's with constant abundance), deadlocked conservative society everywhere else.
I know this will spark fire and flames, but if the money for the space program would went into some problem solving down here, building a solid basis for a post-oil sience-able-society, i would gladly sacrifice a shuttle today, to get a space elevator five hundred years into tomorrow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_fountain