I agree, though, that unless ATO works out, chemical rockets are probably just about the best and safest technology we are likely to find for launch from earth.
But if Less Wrong ever undertakes some kind of collective brainpower exercise as an experiment, I’d love to see whether the smart people here can figure out how or whether the ATO idea might work. There is some weird stuff that happens when the atmosphere gets thin enough so that the mean free path becomes comparable to the scale height and the airship dimensions become comparable to both.
Two other technologies that might play a role are Airship to Orbit from J.P. Aerospace, and the space tethers ideas of Robert Forward’s company.
I agree, though, that unless ATO works out, chemical rockets are probably just about the best and safest technology we are likely to find for launch from earth.
But if Less Wrong ever undertakes some kind of collective brainpower exercise as an experiment, I’d love to see whether the smart people here can figure out how or whether the ATO idea might work. There is some weird stuff that happens when the atmosphere gets thin enough so that the mean free path becomes comparable to the scale height and the airship dimensions become comparable to both.
Wikipedia link with more ideas: Non-rocket spacelaunch. I like the idea of building a tower of balloons :-)