Colonization of the Solar System & Beyond

[Dave Land]

On Feb 29, 2008, at 1:29 PM, Wayne Eddy wrote:

> I am new to the list, but a long time fan of the ...... what do you  
> call
> the  Killer B's, now that you have inducted Vernor Vinge?

Some just pronounce his name "Bernor Binge" to avoid confusion.

> Has the list discussed what it will take to colonise the solar  
> system in
> the past or is that too almost on topic?

Unless you can find a way to turn it into (a) a tirade against religion,
(b) a tirade against tirades against religion, (c) a tirade against
Wal-Mart or (d) a tirade against tirades against Wal-Mart, I'm not sure
how much traction you'll get... :-)

Seriously, occasional discussions of "real science" fiction have  
occurred
here, but understand that some people on this list are pretty heavy
hitters in the science department, while others are heavier on the
fiction.

> It seems to me any colonisation of space will be doomed while it is
> dependent on any more than token amounts of equipment manufactured on
> earth, and that with current technology it would take hundreds or
> perhaps thousands of missions to Mars say, before there would be much
> chance of building the infrastructure to bootstrap an independent
> technological civilization.

And many hundreds of years, probably, too. If there is one lesson from
"Guns, Germs and Steel" (which I just finished reading, about a decade
after everybody else, evidently), it is that environmental factors,
such as being along the same latitude, and geographical factors, such as
the 40-odd million miles between Earth and Mars, are highly effective
barriers to migration.

Dave