XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics   
   From: fjmccall@gmail.com   
      
   JF Mezei  wrote:   
      
   >On 2016-10-14 14:09, Fred J. McCall wrote:   
   >   
   >>>If we had dilithium reactors, warp drive, replicators, and transporters   
   >>>the problem would be trivial.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> Do you insist the effort for anything you do must be 'trivial'?   
   >>   
   >   
   >Actually yes.   
   >   
      
   Then I hope you enjoy sitting in your cave eating bushes.   
      
   >   
   >Current discussions are for projects that would be   
   >launched now (the project) with early actual launches to Mars in a few   
   >years. (aka: as agressive if not more than sending a man on the moon   
   >within 7 years of announcement).   
   >   
      
   Nobody is talking people on Mars in the next 7 years (in 2024 or so).   
   NASA is talking at least a decade later (sometime in the 2030's) and   
   that will probably slide right.  Musk is talking around 2024 (2024   
   launch with 2025 arrival), but he's using a booster and ship that do   
   not yet exist, so not 'existing technology' and it will probably slide   
   right some.   
      
   And any slide right means a 26 month slide...   
      
   >   
   >And this means using tech that is basically available today with only a   
   >need to fine tune and scale it up. (eg: very large composite tanks).   
   >   
      
   >   
   >We're not talking about di-lithium crystals, and matter/anti-matter   
   >engines which don't exist yet. So in many wys, what is being attempted   
   >now must be "trivial" in that sense: existing tech.   
   >   
      
   You've been listening to Jimp the Chimp too much.  He's the only one   
   getting all wrapped around the axle over the need for 'Star Trek   
   technology'.   
      
   We apparently have very different ideas of 'trivial'.  I don't   
   consider Musk's development effort 'trivial'.  For you, it sounds like   
   things are 'trivial' up to the point of requiring magic fairy dust.   
      
      
   --   
   "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable   
    man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,   
    all progress depends on the unreasonable man."   
                                         --George Bernard Shaw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)