OCONNORDM@GE-CRD.ARPA (OCONNOR DENNIS MICHAEL) (11/12/86)
Date: 11-NOV-1986 16:08 From: Dennis O'Connor Sender: OCONNORDM Subject: Powersats, Orbital Bummers, Causes of War, Etc. To: SPACE@ANGBAND@SMTP -------- In SPACE Digest V7 #41 "Dale.Amon@h.cs.cmu.edu" engages in a long combination of comclusion-jumping, flaming and ad hominum attacks. Such behavior is NOT what I had hoped for as a response to my original line of inquiry. The length and low information density of "Dale.Amon@h.cs.cmu.edu"'s message prohibits quoting it, but I'd like to challenge some of his statements. 1. You can design a powersat as a collection of independant modules, each containing a reflector, power converter, and a microwave transmitter. The transmitters on the units are coordinated by a redundant central control system into a large phased-array transmitter. Advantages of such a powersat : you use a lot of small, cheap components instead of a few big, expensive ones; you can start small and expand it easily; you can take portions down for service without shutting down everything; and it is very robust ( loosing subunits doesn't cost you the whole thing ). If you think about it, this makes it a survivable weapon also. 2. The USA did not ( hasn't yet ? ) conquered England because North America is rich in natural resources and England is ( generally ) poor in them. The same CAN NOT be said of space. 3. A space-based installation is only vulnerable to attack by a weapon if : a. It allows the groundhogs to build it. b. It allows the groundhogs a launch facility for it. c. It allows it to survive the LONG trip from Earth. You can do A or B by blackmail or pre-emptive strike, and C using existing machine-cannon or air-to-air technology. Given all this, if you come up with a list of attacks that space colonies are "very vulnerable" to, I'll come up with cheap, easy countermeasures. ( Countermeasure 1 : " You build a launch pad, we fry New York " ). 4. If the inside of the colonie rotates and the outside doesn't, then put all the weapons on the outside and don't let any of them get blasted off ( see 3, above ). If the whole thing rotates do the same but get better targetting systems. Really BIG weapons mount inside along the axis of rotation, with a targetting mirror at the end. 5. in re the difference between tanks and cadillacs, more to the point is the difference between pillboxes and underground parking garages ( pillboxes are cheaper the garages, actually ). 6. If I win the war, I will MAKE YOU send me ANYTHING I WANT ( only to low orbit, I'll take it from there, but YOU DO THE HARD PART ), and I WON'T PAY FOR IT, and IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT I WILL FRY YOU because I CAN HIT YOU BUT YOU CAN"T HIT ME. Beyond that, you can govern yourselves. This is called GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY. Yes, goverments do act ( have acted ) this childishly. 7. A thriving, expanding space culture doesn't hold any fear for me. Rather, a desparate, struggling, just-getting-started culture is the real threat. They NEED to get things cheap/free. 8. If people are going to adapt to low gravity in only a few generation, the ONLY way it will happen ( genetically ) is if you refuse to allow people who aren't well adapted to breed. Period. There is no other form of adaptation possible ( unless your going to splice genes yourself, but beleive me, that isn't a cheap thing with people. It's not even cheap with E. Coli ). And what about bone-mass loss ? 9. If one of the MAJOR causes of war is scarce resources, then Space Colonies will have a lot of cause for war. The list of important resources that ARE NOT AT ALL AVAILABLE ( much less "scarce" ) in space runs like a CRC Handbook. And if an ambitous politician can exploit these multitudinous shortages ... I think everyone on the net would appreciate if entries to it were well thought out, not just knee-jerk reactions. I am trying ( I'll admit I may not be suceeding ) to adher to this rule. Dennis O'Connor --------
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (11/24/86)
> ... The list of important > resources that ARE NOT AT ALL AVAILABLE ( much less "scarce" ) in > space runs like a CRC Handbook... Name a handful, please. Bear in mind that "in space" includes asteroids (both nickel-iron and carbonaceous-chondrite), comet nuclei, and the smaller moons of the outer planets. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry