From: barry@netcom.com (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Going into space...
Date: 11 Dec 92 18:41:30 GMT
Organization: QQQCLC

In article <Bz3n31.6LM@encore.com> aaldrich@encore.com (Al Aldrich) writes:
>let's try some pure fantasy. Let's say that we DO manage to get
>appropriate technology developed to launch sufficient resources and
>people into space and start moving heavy industry to space. Now let's
>say that some Industry giant wants to move their manufacturing to
>space. What do you think that manufacturers main concern is going to
>be? Do you think that they are going to ask if any of their toxic or
>hazardous by-products could possibly escape and drift back into earths
>gravitational pull ? Do you think that accidents won't happen ? Do you
>think that anyone will take precautionary measures to protect against
>industrial accidents to protect the environment or their wallets? Based
>on history and current mindset, I think the answer is pretty clear.

	My thanks to Al for being willing to think about this
stuff, and ask some intelligent questions.

	First the bad news: you're right, neither regulation nor
altruism will be enough to keep space industry from cutting corners to
squeeze out that extra profit. I would expect that the LEO (Low Earth
Orbit - within about 400 miles of Earth's surface) area will be
pretty-well regulated; anything farther away than that is entirely
insulated from the Earth by distance and vacuum.

	That's the good news: space is big. I mean REALLY big, even
counting only our own "back yard". There's so much room that, without
needing any special precautions, accidents are localized at their
origin. There's no way, no medium, to pass environmental damage around.

>So,
>some supply ship of massive quantities of toxic chemicals accidently
>misfires or leaks while being launched into space or whatever and
>`woops, we are dumping all kinds of good shit into the atmosphere'..
>ah well, I guess we should have thought of that possibility 25 years
>ago..  Well, let's not cry over spilled milk..forward progress..!

	The idea is that you never send massive quantities of _anything_
from Earth to space, once you've got the ball rolling. It's not
economical, no matter the launch technology. The surface of the Earth
is, from the point of view of space, the bottom of a deep well, a
gravity well. Bringing things up from the bottom is hard, and expensive.
So, anything you need in quantity, like metals or energy, you get from
space, not Earth.

	Things don't "drift" in space, and orbits don't decay in the
manner familiar to Star Trek fans. Only something in very low earth
orbit, something that grazes the atmosphere like Skylab did, can have
its orbit decay in any reasonable length of time. There's certainly no
reason to locate heavy industry that close to our planet. Once we have a
proper space transportation system in place there's no benefit to the
owners to put it so close by.

	Accidents are bound to happen, and accidents in space can be
catastrophic for those at the site, those who'd been breathing that air
until it got away, for example. But they don't _propagate_. Even a
thermonuclear explosion is unimportant, unless you're standing real
close.

>I see nothing wrong with using space and astral resources as long as
>some well thought out contingency plans are in place. History says this
>won't happen.

	Your general point is valid. Once the process gets going, we're
going to attack the rest of the Solar System voraciously and carelessly.
The saving grace is not in us, but in the Solar System, itself, which is
huge beyond imagination, and apparently lifeless except for our own
planet. Distance and quantity will protect us from our own excesses, not
long-term planning. That will come later, naturally, when the rest of
the system is no longer a wild frontier. And that will take a long time,
indeed. We'll continue to manage the _Earth_ carefully, because it's
small and valuable beyond measure, but space is a different environment,
a frontier, and will run by the rules of the frontier (i.e., few rules
at all).

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                Kenn Barry
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