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Paul Birch and Mass Stream applications for the real world
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(02-23-2014, 12:11 PM)omega_tyrant Wrote: I have been spending some time reading through Birch's materials. I think his ideas about Mass Stream, orbital rings, etc, are very good, and don't appear to violate any laws of physics (although I'm not a scientist, so I don't know for sure.) It also doesn't appear to require any radical breakthrough tech that is not already in existence to produce. What do you think is the main reason why we don't have practical Mass Stream tech? What are the biggest obstacles that are preventing our adaptation of this tech?

Curiously, I also don't really see this tech being discussed, either in scientific circles or in sci-fi.
One reason is that any project based on Mass Stream tech is inherently a mega project. That means that it requires significant investment and that it is very, very long term.
These are things that politicians are afraid of.
Even if you gathered sufficient political support various pressure groups mostly of environmental type are bound to oppose the project.
Some of them will try to block construction others may even try direct attack.

You also have to explain to electorate why are you using incredible amount of resources on something what will not touch their lives immediately.

Then you have to deal with local population, most of them won't probably want to live next to space elevator or similar structure.

And after that there will be international opposition because sooner or later someone is going to say it is meant to be somehow used against them.

In other words it's nearly impossible to do in current socio-political climate.
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RE: Paul Birch and Mass Stream applications for the real world - by Dalex - 02-24-2014, 06:09 PM

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