Space Ship One, half way to collect X Prize | Page 2 | FerrariChat

Space Ship One, half way to collect X Prize

Discussion in 'Other Off Topic Forum' started by WILLIAM H, Sep 29, 2004.

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  1. TimN88

    TimN88 F1 Veteran

    Jun 12, 2001
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    Isnt earths population now over 6 billion?
     
  2. mk e

    mk e F1 World Champ

    Oct 31, 2003
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    Yes, as far as I know it is, and that is the problem. If the population stays where it is, within about 100 years, every tree will be cut down, every fish pulled from the ocean, we will have a mess on our hands IMO.
     
  3. WILLIAM H

    WILLIAM H Three Time F1 World Champ

    Nov 1, 2003
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    Actually yes it will change that A Lot, because of the sheer volume of not just minerals but also water, energy and real estate to live on

    The asteroid belt has more mineral wealth than the human species could use in its entire existance, I am talking Millions of times the volume of the Earth in minerals & probably water too. thats not counting water & minerals on the Moon or Mars.

    If we can just get stupid politicians to focus on the long range istead of just every 4 years maybe we can get somewhere.

    The Chinese Pres doesnt have to worry about an election every 4 years which allows them to take a very long range look and create a long term plan of action & stick to it. If they really decide to go into space in a big way & succeed the USA could be relegated to 2nd string
     
  4. DavidG

    DavidG Rookie

    Nov 16, 2003
    2
    When I hear people talking about mining the moon and other planets, I always wonder if anybody has done research into the negative side of this.

    In small amounts, I'm sure it wouldn't matter, but what would happen when we start shipping large quantities of mass from somewhere else to our planet. Surely if this was from something as close as the moon, it would have to affect things. Earth's mass would increase while the moon's decreases. Surely this can't be a good thing in the long run. Can it?

    Of course I'm not talking about about the short term. But to listen to some people who propose this as a long term solution, I just can't help but wonder ...

    Anyways, maybe I should get back on my meds ... ;)
     
  5. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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    Apr 21, 2003
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    Don't lose any sleep over it. The Earth picks up approximately 10 to the 8th power kilograms of mass each day from incoming space debris which is only a quadrillionth of one percent of the total mass of the Earth which is approximately 10 to the 25th power kilograms.
     
  6. WILLIAM H

    WILLIAM H Three Time F1 World Champ

    Nov 1, 2003
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    The idea is not so much to bring stuff down to Earth but to create self sustaining colonies in space on Mars & the Moon, mostly to take advantage of all that real estate for billions more humans and also to have a back up planet in case anything should happen to this one.
    It may sound like Sci Fi but the Earth has suffered severe calamaties in the past like strikes my massive asteroids 65 million years ago or the Supervolcano that blew 75,000 years ago nearly wiping out the human race. The of course there is nuclear war & plague

    Some things will get shipped back to Earth, mostly precious metals & stones, energy, & fuel like H3 & natural gas, and materials we need for industry that are rare or difficult to extract on Earth like titanium
     
  7. WILLIAM H

    WILLIAM H Three Time F1 World Champ

    Nov 1, 2003
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    The show on the X Prize last night on discovery was SO Cool !!!!!!!!

    I was really thrilled when Rutan said that Werner Von Braun the father of the Saturn 5 rocket which took Americans to the moon was his hero.

    Rutan had photos of Von Braun's space station which he wants to build as a hotel. I am definately looking for new investments in this arena & will be buying some Virgin Galactic stock :)

    Part 2 is on this morning at 9 am on the Science channel
     
  8. Eric308gtsiqv

    Eric308gtsiqv Formula 3

    Nov 26, 2001
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    Thoroughly enjoyed the program last night -- utterly amazing!

    Forgot to set the VCR for this AM though....hopefully they'll replay Part 2.
     
  9. Mark(study)

    Mark(study) F1 Veteran

    Oct 13, 2001
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    3 things jumped out at me...

    -when they lost the nav computer.... they had a back-up, it was a ping pong ball on a string. So he could tell which way "down" was on his way to space.

    -when they need to test a new tail section in a wind tunnel. They didn't have time so they strapped it to their truck and drove 80 miles and hour.

    -when they needed some door and window fixtures for inside the spaceship... the guy sent his men to a car junk-yard and said " you can find some great old door handels from old trucks and vans... those automitive guys built some high quality stuff.

    Hey NASA .... are you watching? You can take your 400 billion buget and learn something from watching these guys. LOL
     
  10. WILLIAM H

    WILLIAM H Three Time F1 World Champ

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    If Rutan had $400 Billion we'd have a city on Mars by now :)
     
  11. GrigioGuy

    GrigioGuy Splenda Daddy
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    Nov 26, 2001
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    368,000 feet, over 69 miles up. Beautiful live pics from the rocket itself.

    WAHOO!
     
  12. TheScarletStang

    TheScarletStang Formula Junior

    Feb 7, 2004
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    Sean Salter
    WOW that was awesome! just watched the Spaceship 1 leave the atmosphere! standing ovation from me!
     

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