XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics, sci.astro   
   From: droleary@2017usenet1.subsume.com   
      
   For your reference, records indicate that   
   Jeff Findley  wrote:   
      
   > Balloon launch isn't worth the trades which have to be made, IMHO.   
      
   Certainly not today, no, or people would be doing it.  But as I keep   
   saying, new technologies keep popping up all the time that might make   
   it viable in the future, at least for a few use cases.   
      
   > By your definition, a passenger carrying aircraft is "waste" because it   
   > flies from one destination to another while carrying passengers.   
      
   Yes; that is true by any definition.  Just because it’s (arguably) the   
   least wasteful mode of transportation we currently have says nothing   
   about how we might travel in the future.   
      
   > They don't give a rat's ass about the "waste" of the   
   > actual aircraft having to fly there and back.   
      
   That same logic could have been used regarding ship or train travel   
   prior to the airplane’s dominance.  The point being that they *will*   
   care as soon as a new technology comes along that allows more   
   efficient travel.  What that might be in reality is unknown, but   
   clearly something like teleportation or Futurama-style tubes are   
   sci-fi ways of moving just the bits that need to be moved from one   
   location to another.   
      
   > When your hardware costs more than two   
   > orders of magnitude more than your propellant does, it makes a hell of a   
   > lot of sense to "expend" a bit of propellant to get your expensive   
   > hardware back intact.   
      
   Yes.  And I’m just wondering why you can’t just take the next step and   
   admit that eliminating that expensive hardware *completely* would   
   represent a cost saving of two orders of magnitude!  You wrote it, but   
   it’s like you weren’t really thinking about what your words actually   
   meant.   
      
   --   
   "Also . . . I can kill you with my brain."   
   River Tam, Trash, Firefly   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)