🚀 go-pugleaf

>In article <665@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
>The robotic and tele-operated technology we _must_ have to establish
>and maintain a manned presence is not yet mature.

The "must" is correct.  Sustained manned presence requires self-sufficiency.
Mir is totally dependent on Earth for all food, water, replacement parts, 
new modules, etc.  The same will be true for Freedom.   As parasites of
Earth they are bad models for space settlements.

To be self sufficient, a settlement must obtain, or be able to obtain in a
crunch, its habitat, food, water, machines, factories, etc. from materials
in space.  This requires:

--Mines and mining equipment, to extract the thousands of minerals needed.
--Many kinds of diverse and flexible factories, to produce all the parts
needed for the construction and maintenence of the settlements, the care
and feeding and quality of life of the inhabitants, and of course the
construction and maintenence of the mines and factories.
--A large network of exploratory vehicles, to optimize the use of solar
system resources.
--An interplanetary transportation system, to bring the resources together
for use.

To do these things economically in space will require a large degree of
teleoperation and robotics.  It will also require the porting of current
Earth mining and manufacturing techniques to space environments (eg
free fall and vacuum)--not a trivial task.

These technologies are being developed slowly today.  In NASA, 
this is done mostly in the unmanned program.  The probe-builders at JPL et. al.
are developing techniques for operating vehicles with long round-trip light
times, in free fall and vacuum, in various radiation environments.  These
spacecraft have many mechanical parts: scanning platforms, adjustable
solar arrays and antennae, fuel and coolant pumps and valves, and
(on sample return vehicles) digging and soil processing equipment.
In addition, advances in Earth-bound mining and manufacturing (the
British Channel Tunnel diggers, stereo lithography, teleoperated ocean
vehicles, etc.) are relevent to developing space settlement technology.

The sustainable manned presence which would grow from such technology
could be developed much faster if we put more of our space budget into 
basic research and unmanned probes, and more effort in general into 
scientific research. 

As for the dream:  I share it.  Reality does not wreck dreams, it gives us
a way of making them come true.  Be patient, be honest with yourself,
and work hard for it.  *Do* let the dream inspire you; *don't* let it
get in the way of the careful thinking and effort that can make it reality.  

Nick Szabo              szabonj@fred.cs.washington.edu