🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Added.AZX=WFW00Ui382dk8M@andrew.cmu.edu> <FSKWB%ALASKA.BITNET@vma.cc.cmu.edu> writes:
>As to the topic of "daydreams vs. reality".  Getting somethin to LEO is
>effectively getting halfway to anywhere in the solar system.  (It's delta-v
>that we're worried about, not actual physical distance.  If we can send
>a probe (either manned or unmanned) to Mars, we can send one out to anywhere
>in the Solar System.  (Or if you follow Dr. Robert Forward at all, even to
>nearby stars)

Halfway in terms of kinetic energy expenditure != halfway in terms of
overall technical difficulty.  Let us take a ham sandwich to Pluto, you
and I; toss it into the payload canister as a whiteroom joke, latch and
launch.  LEO is achieved within minutes -- the bread is still warm.  (I
like my ham sandwiches on light toast. :-) )  Now all you have to do to
get to Pluto is spend the other half of your kinetic energy and WAIT TEN
YEARS.  I hate a stale sandwich.  :-)

Seriously, the issues of long term survival, radiation shielding and
maneuverability at the destination make planetary missions lots more
than twice as hard as orbital missions.
-- 
'We have luck only with women -- not spacecraft!'     \\  Tom Neff
 -- R. Kremnev, builder of failed Soviet FOBOS probes //  tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET