Monday, November 4, 2019

Entrepreneurial Space Revolution - Dyson Sphere Space Station


When this all started, i was at least optimistic.  What i underestimated was the actual scale of pent up investment dollars available once it showed any sign of working.

Now we have the Space-X heavy and it magically uses stainless steel as its structural material.  Of course!  All those half a magnitude gains provided by exotics are irrelevant when you increase your operating scale by a magnitude or two.  What matters then is buildability.  The Heavy can now loft a rail car worth of goods into orbit.

It is now completely possible to quickly build a orbiting Dyson sphere in Earth Orbit.  Such a sphere would have a central tube axis able to dock incoming craft and to even house then for the purpose of off loading.  An inflated balloon would then be used to secure a shirt sleeve working environment for the structural build of the space Station which may well be a mile across even.  what is important is that we use suspension cables turned around the axis to hold platforms forming the outer working shell of the Dyson Sphere.  Rotation will then produce a natural local acceleration on the platform equivalent to Earth gravity.  Thank you Newton..




Entrepreneurial Space Revolution


Brian Wang | October 29, 2019


https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/10/entrepreneurial-space-revolution.html



How big a deal was the success of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy? In 2010, NASA and the Augustine commission determined that it would cost $36 billion and 12 years to develop a heavy-lift vehicle. This meant that the Bush moon program was deemed to be too costly and not practical. SpaceX created a heavy-lift vehicle in six years for less than a billion dollars and it is over 75% reusable.

Entrepreneurial space companies are now completing development in one-third the time for one-tenth the cost.

This seems to demonstrate that reusable rocket technology development previously failed not for technical reasons but for institutional reasons.


Rocket Labs was started by an engineer who raised $300 million. This has reached orbit in New Zealand. New Zealand does not have a space program.


For thousands of years, the oceans and rivers have generated huge wealth from low wealth transport. This has shaped where cities are built and provided a large portion of the world’s economy and shapes global trade.


Now we can have zero-drag space access with point-to-point travel with reusable rockets.

Zubrin observes the new entrepreneurial approach has caused an entrepreneurial surge in nuclear fusion development. Nuclear fusion rockets can be more impactful and useful than nuclear fusion for energy. Nuclear fusion for energy is displacing alternatives for energy using solar, wind, coal etc… Nuclear for energy has to achieve lower cost to develop major new energy advantages. Nuclear fusion for rockets can enable entirely new capabilities like travel up to 10% of light speed.

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