Re: superhero space navigation

IsaacKuo wrote:
> On Apr 11, 3:39 am, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derk...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Eivind Kjorstad wrote:
>>> And plenty of governments that are VERY interested in finding out
>>> PRECISELY how stuff shows up in orbit without them being able to
detect
>>> the launch.
> 
>>> Put differently, LOTS of unwelcome attention.
> 
>> More attention than auctioning old Lunar landers would draw? Putting
>> stuff into orbit is way easier than going to the Moon and retrieving
>> hardware.
> 
> Had I not known better, I'd have thought I'd wandered into a
> Wildepad thread.  I don't mean that in a good way (IS there
> a good way?)...it seems so sad and pathetic to worry about
> secrecy and unwelcome attention when there's so much
> incredibly good science and discovery and progress to the
> world in general that would be possible instead.

True, that. Plus it becomes much easier to make a buck, too. :) The 
snippet of story text that the original poster posted at one point 
indicated that "mutants" and their abilities were known of in general, 
but that they might be highly regulated. Presumably some country 
somewhere on Earth will have suitably lax regulations to allow it and 
get a good economic boost in the process.

> This "superhero" can fly in space!  So what about "unwelcome
> attention"?  If I had the ability to live and fly in space, what
> percentage of the time would I be spending in Earth's
> biosphere, where "evil government types" might harm me?
> I'd be bunking in a "space station" (little more than a box
> to store food/water), with a beautiful view of Earth.  I'd spend
> most of my waking hours exploring the solar system and
> retrieving samples, and only popping down to Earth to
> drop of samples and stock up on supplies (at a random
> market literally anywhere in the world).

Depends a lot on the personality of the super, though. He might consider 
this sort of lifestyle nothing more than self-imposed exile.

Myself, I'd probably want to create a private moonbase getaway (easier 
to find than something in orbit and with a more interesting 
neighborhood) and do some grand touring of the solar system, but spend a 
lot of time on Earth too. If these powers were likely to get me in 
trouble just for having them then I'd want to be careful of the 
"vulnerable friends and family" aspect of things.

If conditions are such that secrecy isn't vital, I'd see if space 
exploration could be made a career. I'm sure there'd be plenty of 
universities who'd pay great money to have someone tote their satellites 
and surface stations out to various planets and moons and bring back 
stuff. Couple of issues might arise there:
1) Carrying capacity. Even just suitcase-sized is probably sufficient 
for a lot of science to get done, but if I could carry bus-sized objects 
  the potentials become enormous
2) contamination. Researchers might be reluctant to have a messy organic 
being covered in bactera punching a hole in Europa to drop that minisub 
in. Depends on how good the personal force field is at keeping stuff in, 
I guess.
3) Communication. Out at the moon a simple omnidirectional radio set 
will probably be fine but farther than that will require something 
directional and it might be difficult keeping it lined up by hand, 
especially considering light speed delays. Will definitely want to carry 
a communication satellite out there at the first opportunity.