this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Ion drives. A little acceleration over a long time can get you going quite fast. I doubt chemical rockets will be used much except actually getting off the planet soon.
I had to read this a couple times to make sure i got it. Thanks for that. As far as i understand it at least orbits and courses are much easier with chemical fuel because its point and thrust and all over in a matter of a couple hours. Your fuel is mostly expended and you are on the correct track with very small adjustments possibly required. An ion drive while slow is an exponential curve because its speeding up on top of the speed it already has. So instead of going from 0, to 1, to 2, to 3, to 4, to 5 it would go from 0, to 1, to 2, to 4, to 16, to 256. If i am understanding correctly this would far outsrip a point and thrust craft quickly. A probe to mars takes 9 months during the transfer window but i have heard estimates of 3 months for an ion drive craft
For in-system travel, we have to invest in space infrastructure, same as we did for the Oregon trail -> highways, the earliest sailing ships -> hydrofoil ships and aircraft carriers, and from covered wagons to cargo trains.
Skyhooks are a system of locomotion we could already do today, and save tons of expense on fuel and lift capacity, it's just staggeringly expensive to do. We would need to redesign our spacecraft and building the first skyhooks would be a joint nation-state endeavor.
Interesting high level overview on them here. https://youtu.be/dqwpQarrDwk
Pretty decent pre generation-ship technology.