Worlds For Man Part 0 up at "Fantastic Worlds"
I've put a slightly-improved version of my 2007 essay "Worlds For Man - Sol" up at Fantastic Worlds,
"Worlds For Man - Sol"
(c) 2007, 2011 by Jordan S. Bassior
Introduction
This is an overview of the colonization and economic potential of the Solar System. In general when I talk about "Near Term" possibilities I am referring to throroughly known engineering; "Middle Term" assumes the possibility of considerable engineering progress and some scientific progress; and "Long Term" of vast engineering progress and major scientific progress. Obviously, the longer the term, the greater the speculation involved.
I considered doing it in terms of the rough time frames, but realized that I have no good way to predict the speed of scientific and technological progress. If you believe the most fervent advocates of The Singularity, we might get to "Long Term" levels of progress by 2050 or so; otherwise, I would imagine it would take many centuries.
I'm doing the system from the inside out.
The Sun
We normally don't think of the Sun when we think of space colonization, but it does contain some 99% of all the mass in the Solar System. Of course, it's hardly an inviting environment: at its surface the temperature is 5500 K, high enough to vaporize any substance we know how to make. This temperature climbs to 13.6 million degrees Kelvin in the core, enough to fuse hydrogen, which is exactly what happens, and what produces most of the Sun's energy (the rest being produced by gravitational pressure).
Full essay at http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2011/03/worlds-for-man-part-0-introduction-and.html
"Worlds For Man - Sol"
(c) 2007, 2011 by Jordan S. Bassior
Introduction
This is an overview of the colonization and economic potential of the Solar System. In general when I talk about "Near Term" possibilities I am referring to throroughly known engineering; "Middle Term" assumes the possibility of considerable engineering progress and some scientific progress; and "Long Term" of vast engineering progress and major scientific progress. Obviously, the longer the term, the greater the speculation involved.
I considered doing it in terms of the rough time frames, but realized that I have no good way to predict the speed of scientific and technological progress. If you believe the most fervent advocates of The Singularity, we might get to "Long Term" levels of progress by 2050 or so; otherwise, I would imagine it would take many centuries.
I'm doing the system from the inside out.
The Sun
We normally don't think of the Sun when we think of space colonization, but it does contain some 99% of all the mass in the Solar System. Of course, it's hardly an inviting environment: at its surface the temperature is 5500 K, high enough to vaporize any substance we know how to make. This temperature climbs to 13.6 million degrees Kelvin in the core, enough to fuse hydrogen, which is exactly what happens, and what produces most of the Sun's energy (the rest being produced by gravitational pressure).
Full essay at http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2011/03/worlds-for-man-part-0-introduction-and.html