A thought on teleportation.

[fayanora]

If teleportation is ever invented and perfected, it could revolutionize space travel. Why even have any kind of craft that regularly launches from the surface? Sure, you might need to launch a few things now and then, if they're too big to teleport, or to easily teleport. But for the most part, most people and supplies could just be teleported into

Comments

[kengr]

some day I need to dig out some of Niven's stories on teleportation, and his essay "The Theory and Practice of Teleportation".

[erithianopius]

You should really read the Hyperion novels, and what they show being done with farcasters. The entire civilization is linked by portals that are always open, connecting worlds seamlessly like doors connect rooms. I had a similar idea. Teleportals link worlds together in a similar way, and are used for terraforming. You were mentioning teleporting to Mars. Imagine how much faster terraforming would be if teleportation could be used to transport materials and solar energy. An array of portals could be placed around the Sun, teleporting solar radiation to Mars, making conditions comparable to those of earth - like proximity to the Sun. Water is teleported, perhaps from Europa or Enceladus. Greenhouse gases are teleported from Venus (biomembrane or nanotech filters can scrub out the sulfates) and plants/algae are teleported from Earth