Perhaps you think we are incapable of doing industrial chemistry and engineering at a distance of 238,857 miles, resulting in a round signal trip of around 5 seconds, between sending a telepresence command and receiving video confirmation. Think ASIMO. driven by telepresence that needs no computing power, just commands, transmitted by radio signal which would take 2.56 seconds to get from the earth to the moon, a mechanical human simulacrum on the moon, being controlled from the earth with an operator wearing a special suit.

With energy and knowledge of chemistry you can do anything, even maybe reverse entropy.

So what speed is the shuttle doing when it is say 50 kilometers up, ok not escape velocity yet, but I would guess it would be going pretty fast by then.

Looking at it the other way around, when it is reentering, what is the speed at 50 kilometers in?

Why is the Shuttle covered in bathroom tiles?

Bet getting all those bathroom tiles to escape velocity must cost an arm an a leg.

Use the millions of tons of rocket fuel on the moon far cheaper.

I'm sure if they can control robots on Mars, they sure as hell can control robots on the moon to extract the rocket fuel.

Or perhaps the real reason you are being negative about my idea, is the rumors are true and America never went to the moon in the first place, and don't want to get found out.

The high cost to the human race's colonization of space is caused by the complexity and danger of reaching and leaving escape velocity within the earth's atmosphere.

The Space Shuttle turned out to be an expensive dangerous white elephant, the reason the Shuttle was so expensive is, because of its complexity with millions of different manufactured parts and the requirement to drag the fuel needed to reach escape velocity up from the surface of the earth.

There is another route, we can reach the vacuum of space no problem, Burt Rutan proved this with Space Ship one, when he won the 'X' prize by reaching over 100 km twice in one week.

Yes the Shuttle was 'reusable' but in name only. They could not have turned that around in a week.

One idea could be to create rocket fuel on the moon, with robotic technology operated from earth, there is lots of water on the moon, use solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen which makes very good rocket fuel.

Use the rocket fuel to fuel a space tug, use the space tug to accelerate and decelerate Space Ship Two, to and from escape velocity in the safety of a vacuum.

The moon is the door to the solar system.

The high cost to the human race's colonisation of space, is caused by the
complexity and danger of reaching escape velocity within the atmosphere,
whilst lifting the fuel with which this is achieved from the surface of the
earth.

There is another route - we can reach the edge of space safely and relatively
cheaply no problem, Burt Rutan proved this with 'Space Ship One' when he won
the 'X' prize by reaching over 100 km high, twice in one week.

My idea is, to create rocket fuel on the moon by splitting the water
discovered there, into oxygen and hydrogen using solar energy, then use that
rocket fuel to fuel a space tug, place the space tug in orbit around the
earth, slow down the space tug using moon fuel, attach the space tug to 'Space
Ship One' then using the space tug, accelerate the whole kit and caboodle from
the edge of space, to escape velocity and orbit, safely in the vacuum of
space.

If we can control robots millions of miles away on mars, I'm fairly sure we
could control water extraction plants on the moon.

Another potential source of rocket fuel on the moon, is the large amounts of
aluminium present in moon rock, aluminium burns in the presence of oxygen,
moon rock is around 40% oxygen.

I wrote this for another place on the 'net but thought your comment deserved a copy for /.

The high cost to the human race's colonisation of space, is caused by the complexity and danger of reaching escape velocity within the atmosphere, whilst lifting the fuel with which this is achieved from the surface of the earth.

There is another route, we can reach the edge of space safely and relatively cheaply no problem, Burt Rutan proved this with 'Space Ship One' when he won the 'X' prize by reaching over 100 km high, twice in one week.

My idea is, to create rocket fuel on the moon by splitting the water discovered there, into oxygen and hydrogen using solar energy, then use that rocket fuel to fuel a space tug, place the space tug in orbit around the earth, slow down the space tug using moon fuel, attach the space tug to 'Space Ship One' then using the space tug, accelerate the whole kit and caboodle from the edge of space, to escape velocity and orbit, safely in the vacuum of space.

The moon is the door to the solar system.

If we can control robots millions of miles away on mars, I'm fairly sure we could control water extraction plants on the moon.

Another potential source of rocket fuel on the moon, is the large amounts of aluminium present in moon rock, aluminium burns in the presence of oxygen, moon rock is around 40% oxygen.

The high cost to the human races colonisation of space is caused by
the complexity and danger of reaching escape velocity.

The Space Shuttle turned out to be an expensive dangerous white elephant, the reason the Shuttle was so expensive is, because of its complexity with millions of different manufactured parts.

There is another route, we can reach the edge of space no problem Burt Rutan proved this with Space Ship one when he won the 'X' prize by reaching over 100 km twice in one week.

Yes the Shuttle was 'reusable' but in name only. They could not have turned that around in a week.

One idea could be to create rocket fuel on the moon, this latest discovery of water on the moon means there is rocket fuel on the moon.

Use the rocket fuel to fuel a space moon tug, use the moon tug to accelerate 'Space Ship One' to escape velocity in a vacuum where it is safe to do and also the moon tug could be used to decelerate SS1 in a vacuum, again much more safe

Then we can use the moon as a fuel station, there are asteroids of ice, in the asteroid belt put rocket motors on the ice asteroids and fly them to the moon.

The moon is the door to the solar system.

Bert Rutan proved we can get relatively safely and cheaply out of the atmosphere. Using the potential fuel on the moon, we could make a space tug accelerate a pay load to escape velocity.

The reason space is so expensive is, to achieve escape velocity requires rocket fuel be lifted from the earth's surface.

http://www.techflash.com/How_a_Microsoft_veteran_learned_to_love_Linux_and_why_it_matters_48542167.html

The really clever thing about this was, they never went to the moon six times, they tried not to go to the moon actually seven times, 'coz one time they failed in their attempt not to go the moon, but luckily the three astronauts survived their attempt at not going to the moon.
     

Hello,

Have just upgraded, it used to be a right rigmarole, now it couldn't be simpler.

The Mandriva server sent my desktop a message saying the upgrade was available would I like to proceed? I indicated yes, my system automatically downloaded the upgrade, took around 3 hours and considering it was an over 3 GB upgrade package not bad.

Upgrade package downloaded, it asked me was it OK to reboot "yes" I indicated.

One reboot later and I'm running the latest KDE and the latest Mandriva with no pain, no CD or DVD burning, usually for reasons unbeknown to myself, upgrading would involve reinstalling whilst keeping my original home partition, and getting everything working again usually a painful and frustrating process, it seems like those days are done!

Well done Mandriva, I will most certainly be spending some money in you're shop.

Ok so Microsoft takes Tom Tom to court in the US, I should imagine the Dutch people would have something to say about that, sort of like get lost.

I have a Tom Tom. and the fact that it runs Linux gives me pleasure.

So MS wins in the American court, to achieve anything it must also win in the Dutch court this is laughable.

SCO all over again.

Also what is to stop Tom Tom changing their file system?

A best selling biography of Paul Erdos.

This book conveys the magic of mathematics beautifully, by telling the life story of one of the twentieth centuries greatest mathematicians.