I won’t give any spoilers, but I recommend “how to efficiently reach orbit without using a rocket” as a fun exercise. More generally, the goal is to reach orbit in a way which does not have exponentially-large requirements in terms of materials/resources/etc. (Rockets have exponential fuel requirements; see the rocket equation.)
Does “reach orbit” mean put something in orbit or put a human being (and not kill them)? The latter seems pretty hard to do, practically, with current technology, without using rockets (to at least setup an ‘efficient’ system initially).
(Would you link to some spoilers? I’m curious what you have in mind as solutions!)
Live human being is indeed the harder version. I recommend the easier version first, harder version after.
The latter seems pretty hard to do, practically, with current technology, without using rockets (to at least setup an ‘efficient’ system initially).
Ah, but what specific bottlenecks make it hard? What are the barriers, and what chunking of the problem do they suggest?
Also: it’s totally fine to assume that you can use rockets for setup, and then go back and remove that assumption later if the rocket-based initial setup is itself the main bottleneck to implementation.
I won’t give any spoilers, but I recommend “how to efficiently reach orbit without using a rocket” as a fun exercise. More generally, the goal is to reach orbit in a way which does not have exponentially-large requirements in terms of materials/resources/etc. (Rockets have exponential fuel requirements; see the rocket equation.)
Does “reach orbit” mean put something in orbit or put a human being (and not kill them)? The latter seems pretty hard to do, practically, with current technology, without using rockets (to at least setup an ‘efficient’ system initially).
(Would you link to some spoilers? I’m curious what you have in mind as solutions!)
Live human being is indeed the harder version. I recommend the easier version first, harder version after.
Ah, but what specific bottlenecks make it hard? What are the barriers, and what chunking of the problem do they suggest?
Also: it’s totally fine to assume that you can use rockets for setup, and then go back and remove that assumption later if the rocket-based initial setup is itself the main bottleneck to implementation.
This is totally cruel nerd sniping by-the-way :)
;)