Re: James, what do you want with a moonbase anyway?

In article <4tmdnV8xcr8OFA3ZnZ2dnUVZ_qOdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ken from Chicago <kwicker1b_nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"James Nicoll" <jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e6pl7r$dd1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <pOqdnXPLs7zr0A3ZnZ2dnUVZ_oOdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ken from Chicago <kwicker1b_nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Oooh, one quibble. I would switch Mars and asteroids because 1) Mars is
closer and 2) the resources of Mars are so overwhelming.

Depends on the asteroid. Some of the NEOs get closer to Earth
than Mars does in terms of distance and closer to Earth than the
Moon in terms of delta vee. At least one of them has periodic launch
windows where you could get payloads to Earth using a paintball gun.

True, but robots likely could fulfill the missions requirements. The amount
of effort to put humans on and maintain them on an asteroid would seem to
tilt the cost / benefit waaaay to the former.

Unless you are including automated colonies as space colonies.

It's all an extension of human activity.
--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
.

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