Needless to say rockets to the moon and Mars have all been Looney Toons nonsense so far as preparing Mankind for launching into space and living between the stars when this world gets too hot to sustain human life in around 4 billion years time.

The Japs are doing it right.

They're building a steel tentacle to reach out beyond the atmosphere which will have its footing firmly anchored to the ground. Using this as a scaffolding and transport conveyor they will eventually be able to construct artificial space pods several miles in diameter in which humans will one day live as they drift between the stars.

These hollow 'spheres' (think: Arthur C.Clarke's 'Ra') will be built at the top-end of these long thin trellises until they're ready to be launched off into space to join all the others that have come off this construction conveyor belt.

link

It won't be steel, Herbie.  "Carbon nano-tubes" are as the name implies, made from carbon.  Essentially they are carbon fibres, which would be both far longer and far stronger than anything we can produce presently, which is why they are at least 15 year years in the future.  Their strength is several hundred times greater than steel ever could be.

Brian Ross wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2014 at 1:00am:

It won't be steel, Herbie.  "Carbon nano-tubes" are as the name implies, made from carbon.  Essentially they are carbon fibres, which would be both far longer and far stronger than anything we can produce presently, which is why they are at least 15 year years in the future.  Their strength is several hundred times greater than steel ever could be.

Needless to say rocketry, as we know it, will have no place in saving Mankind from the expanding sun.

Blowing soap bubbles gives us an idea of what we will be living in, and how we will be clustered together in groups of spheres as we gently drift through the Void.

By that time there will have been discovered from Earth many more Earth-like planets Out There in our own galaxy, and it's towards these that our 'bubble' habitats will slowly progress for some future generation to arrive at.

link

Typical Asian 'Copying'.

That idea was originally conceived by Arthur C. Clarke and dates back to the 60's.

Jasin wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2014 at 8:25am:

Typical Asian 'Copying'. That idea was originally conceived by Arthur C. Clarke and dates back to the 60's.

Kudos to them!

It doesn't matter who actually produces something tangible, the likelihood is that it was thought of centuries ago by the Chinese, or the Greeks, or Arabs.

What matters is bringing the ideas to reality.

Once scientists can artificially produce spiders webs in the laboratory ~ it'll be Game On. Tensile strength, flexibility, durability, etc 

Jasin wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2014 at 8:25am:

Typical Asian 'Copying'. That idea was originally conceived by Arthur C. Clarke and dates back to the 60's.

No it wasn't.

Quote:

The concept for a space elevator was first published in 1895 by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.[3] His proposal was for a free-standing tower reaching from the surface of Earth to the height of geostationary orbit.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator]
;D ;D ;D :D :D :D ;D ;D ;D :D :D :D

The two big tecchnical issues with nanotubes are mass production and length.

Prime Minister for Canyons wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2014 at 12:07pm:

The two big technical issues with nanotubes are mass production and length.

Especially with the sorts of tensile strengths they're needing. As you undoubtedly are aware, longer lengths --> more point defects. More point defects --> lower yield point. Lower yield point --> weaker materials.