Spring RTS Engine

Exactly how profitable is space travel? By means of resources, tourisim, trade with colonies.

With our current technology? Hardly profitable at all.

However the cost of space travel has fallen by orders of magnitude since the apollo missions.

And with the recent birth of commercial sub orbital flights (due for full service 2009) the cost is set to fall drastically yet again.

The majority of the cost arises from getting into and out of orbit safely. Once the necesary industrial infrastructure is in space costs would become miniscule for space flight not involving re-entry..

AF wrote:With our current technology? Hardly profitable at all.

However the cost of space travel has fallen by orders of magnitude since the apollo missions.

And with the recent birth of commercial sub orbital flights (due for full service 2009) the cost is set to fall drastically yet again.

The majority of the cost arises from getting into and out of orbit safely. Once the necesary industrial infrastructure is in space costs would become miniscule for space flight not involving re-entry..

Get to the asteriods. Theres gold in them there rocks...

There're more useful elements than gold in space, they're just rare or non-existant on earth.

However I think the main benefit of space travel would eb the miriad of technological small thigns it brigns to every facet of life. Most products sold today incorporate technology originally devised for use in space or to construct space vehicle and components.

It also drives innovation and competition pushing forward fields of technology faster, such as robotics, energy conservation and storage, and general ecosystem maintenance and efficiency.

kinda like war, except less killing

Comp1337 wrote:kinda like war, except less killing

But we need war too or else we wont be able to blast the apocaliptic meteors...

AF wrote:There're more useful elements than gold in space, they're just rare or non-existant on earth.

However I think the main benefit of space travel would eb the miriad of technological small thigns it brigns to every facet of life. Most products sold today incorporate technology originally devised for use in space or to construct space vehicle and components.

It also drives innovation and competition pushing forward fields of technology faster, such as robotics, energy conservation and storage, and general ecosystem maintenance and efficiency.

Yeah, but it's harder to say "There's rare and unusual elements in them there rocks" out loud and not get funny looks.

manored wrote:

Comp1337 wrote:kinda like war, except less killing

But we need war too or else we wont be able to blast the apocaliptic meteors...

Spring is for war.
Real life is for living.

So remember that Larry Niven stuff I was talking about? Well the funny thing was the society in the book had been living in the asteroid belt for a century and a half and guess what the primary method of communications was? Lasers. You aim a laser at an antanna and blink it and send messeges that way. So when the aliens shot up and use their telepaths on humains and find out that we have no weapons (Becuase lasers are just tools, get it?) they invade and then we cut them to pices cause every ship, space station and semi-important asteroid has a laser cannon mounted on the side.

Hehehehe. Thats highly amusing.

Zoombie wrote:So remember that Larry Niven stuff I was talking about? Well the funny thing was the society in the book had been living in the asteroid belt for a century and a half and guess what the primary method of communications was? Lasers. You aim a laser at an antanna and blink it and send messeges that way. So when the aliens shot up and use their telepaths on humains and find out that we have no weapons (Becuase lasers are just tools, get it?) they invade and then we cut them to pices cause every ship, space station and semi-important asteroid has a laser cannon mounted on the side.

Hehehehe. Thats highly amusing.

Amusing but real communications lasers wouldn't have any sort of intensity to be capable of doing any sort of damage. Neat idea tho. I personally still like bullets and missiles. In my book "The Mercenary" humanity has conquered pretty much 80% of the universe and though it may be the 10,000s and we travel from one place to another by ripping holes through the fifth dimension, we still use bullets and missiles for a majority of our combat. Why? Cause bullet wounds are a lot more difficult to take care of and heal than wounds from a laser or any other sort of energy weapon. And they are a lot louder and more painful. So that damage is done in three ways.
1) Actual physical damage to the enemy.
2) Pyschological damage to the enemy.
3) And tying up the enemies ability to fight adequately by forcing them to deal with their wounded and dying.

Now as far as outerspace? Yeah, lasers and other energy weapons are still key, cause of things like shields and such. But keep in mind that a Railgun when fired, can cause an amazing amount of damage. As the slug fired from the cannon will actually go through one end of a ship, tear through the innards, and exit with a hole larger than when it entered.

I love military sci-fi XD

No, no no. The Com lasers have settings, one through ten. For close range, you set it to one. For long range, you set it to ten. Use a long range laser on a close range target and you cut it in half.

And for invading aliens...they turn it up to eleven.

Quanto042 wrote:

Zoombie wrote:So remember that Larry Niven stuff I was talking about? Well the funny thing was the society in the book had been living in the asteroid belt for a century and a half and guess what the primary method of communications was? Lasers. You aim a laser at an antanna and blink it and send messeges that way. So when the aliens shot up and use their telepaths on humains and find out that we have no weapons (Becuase lasers are just tools, get it?) they invade and then we cut them to pices cause every ship, space station and semi-important asteroid has a laser cannon mounted on the side.

Hehehehe. Thats highly amusing.

Amusing but real communications lasers wouldn't have any sort of intensity to be capable of doing any sort of damage. Neat idea tho. I personally still like bullets and missiles. In my book "The Mercenary" humanity has conquered pretty much 80% of the universe and though it may be the 10,000s and we travel from one place to another by ripping holes through the fifth dimension, we still use bullets and missiles for a majority of our combat. Why? Cause bullet wounds are a lot more difficult to take care of and heal than wounds from a laser or any other sort of energy weapon. And they are a lot louder and more painful. So that damage is done in three ways.
1) Actual physical damage to the enemy.
2) Pyschological damage to the enemy.
3) And tying up the enemies ability to fight adequately by forcing them to deal with their wounded and dying.

Now as far as outerspace? Yeah, lasers and other energy weapons are still key, cause of things like shields and such. But keep in mind that a Railgun when fired, can cause an amazing amount of damage. As the slug fired from the cannon will actually go through one end of a ship, tear through the innards, and exit with a hole larger than when it entered.

I love military sci-fi XD

Your book? DL? buy? linx? giev me

Unless the laser is for intersteller communications..

Comp1337 wrote:

manored wrote:

Comp1337 wrote:kinda like war, except less killing

But we need war too or else we wont be able to blast the apocaliptic meteors...

Spring is for war.
Real life is for living.

Living includes not being blasted by an apocaliptic meteor...

But oh well we can then invent explosives and blast inocupied places just for fun anyway .

Comp1337 wrote:

Quanto042 wrote:

Zoombie wrote:Zoombie said stuff!

I said stuff too, and mentioned a book.

Your book? DL? buy? linx? giev me

Book!
Linx: http://www.fictionpress.com/u/352158/

It has a begining, a middle, and an end. Currently prepping for publication.
The online version is only a rough draft, and is extremely open for changes. It has a lot of plot holes and missing stuffs.
The final version won't be seen by anyone until publication.

Awsome. Awsome to the max. I'll read it as of now!