[extropy-chat] balloon stations at the edge of space

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Mon, 24 May 2004, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> --- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > --- Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
> > > --- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:

Re: Orion approaches to space...

> > > Nice try; doesn't fly.  "They're POISONING the OCEAN!"
> > > for example.  You'd need to either get the radioactive
> > > material completely out of Earth's atmosphere
> > > (including potential fallout from the detonation), or
> > > reduce the political opposition, before using Orion.

Its simple -- launch Orion type space ships from the moon.

Now whether you transport the weapons up there or produce
them in situ would certainly be topics for discussion
but they do not seem to be impossible problems to resolve.

There would seem to be at least 7+ countries that have
more or less independently resolved the question of
bomb production and at least one, perhaps three countries
that have resolved the question of how to send rockets
to the moon.  Producing nuclear propelled spaceships
launched from the moon is not a question of technology
it is a question of desire.

Here is a thought.  I was recently nailed against a wall
at Spike's by Michael Anissimov, John Oh and others
attempting to extract from me my views on the risks
of bioterrorism (I have no problem with this and view
the thought about and the distribution of information
on the topic as useful.)  *But* it does perhaps raise
the question of what humanity might be capable of?

We could (with minimal effort) send hundreds, if not
thousands of nuclear weapons to the moon.  With more
effort we could mine sufficient material and assemble
them there.  I could go on about what a directed
nanotechnology (nanomedicine) effort might be capable
of but I will not.  I only want to plant in your
minds the idea that we are *soooo* underfullfilling
our potential.  As Extropes you may want to consider
how that should be corrected.

Robert