John Schilling wrote:
> Who do you imagine is capable of sending spacecraft to Saturn within a
> decade? NASA couldn't do it, not even with unlimited funding and the
> certain knowledge that every NASA employee would be tortured to death
> if they failed. Nor ESA, nor the Russians, nor the plucky unstoppable
> Chinese what are going to rule the world within a decade. The United
> States Air Force would be a long shot, and who else is there?
You'll have to be clear about exactly what you think is impossible,
since we've done it before. Neither the planning or the actual trip (if
one were to use simple chemical drives, possibly with gravity assists)
takes longer than a decade, as _Apollo_ and the _Voyager_ programs show,
respectively (and _Apollo_ is vastly more complicated than what we're
talking about here -- we're talking about a simple probe that will test
the FTL drive).
--
Erik Max Francis && max@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
&& http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, CA, USA && 37 18 N 121 57 W && AIM, Y!M erikmaxfrancis
The little I know, I owe to my ignorance.
-- Sacha Guitry
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