A space elevator could be used to lift bulk cargo and materials to orbit.
Those of us interested in science fiction have many beliefs. Among them; that we will travel to the stars and hence break the “light” barrier, and that the future will exist at all, and that we will encounter intelligent beings from other planets some of which will be friendly while others will want to gobble us up like Thanksgiving turkeys,. We are generally optimists regardless of how dystopic our stories and try to work a little humor in when we can. “Don’t run. We are your friends!”
But on a technical point suppose someone wanted to travel from Phoenix, Arizona to Tau Ceti for vacation. How would they do it, procedurally?
In the Star Wars universe has the most convenient portrayal, with relatively small spaceships conceivably parked in a driveway. Jump in, close the door, and next stop Tau Ceti! Impossible? Nothing’s impossible, and maybe sometime way in the future that’s what we humans may be doing. But there are some questions that need to be answered. For example, what about security? How would Earth control who was coming and going if we could just come and go as we pleased?
Others have speculated that there could be shuttles everywhere lifting people and cargo into orbit where various large interstellar liners and star ships too massive to come down to Earth. Consider a present-day cruise ship that uses launches to ferry passengers back and forth in various ports of call because the ship is too big to dock. But the question of control would still need to be addressed. Unless shuttles originated at designated “space” ports where permission and documentation could be checked and validated, it would be difficult to control anything. Yes, there’s the Buck Rogers planetary shield with a special gateway that had to be activated to allow ships to pass through but some think that’s stretching things a bit too far!
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey showed a different idea though without the interstellar travel. A shuttle takes Dr. Floyd from Earth to an orbiting space station where he transits to a moon transport. He could just as easily have transited to a Jupiter-bound shuttle or, further in the future, to an interstellar starship. This also happens to be how things seem to be depicted in the Star Trek universe. Taking this idea a step further these orbiting stations could, in fact, be one end of a space elevator that could transport bulk cargo and unlimited amounts of fuel and other supplies. But having multiple interstellar-capable starships coming and going from a tethered platform might pose added risk.
Then there’s the idea I like most: use the moon. Build a moon base that would serve as a staging area. Gravity on the moon is only one-sixth that of Earth so coming and going from the moon would be a lot easier. The large interstellar starships could free-orbit the moon while the Earth orbiting space stations would still be one end of the space elevators. And what about the space between the Earth and the moon? I see that as countless very busy traffic lanes bustling with endless salvage and towing possibilities. I mean why should we expect drivers and vehicles of the future to be any better than what we have now?
How do you see space travel working in the future? Do you have your own ideas that you’d like to share? Feel free to comment!
