WI There's No Use Crying for the Moon

Let's suppose that the conspiracy theorists are right in this at least, and by the mid-Sixties scientists have judged that the Van Allen belts are indeed impassible, not only to humans, but also to any electronics. That leaves only the possibility launching from the polar regions, which would obviously be prohibitively expensive.

What is the effect on popular culture of realising that even the nearest reaches of 'Outer Space' are inaccessible for the current generation, and perhaps forever?
,
 
Assume a great deal of wailing and beating of breasts immediately thereafter. Skip forward to current times, realization that global warming will make Antarctica the promised land for space exploration brings back the happy times...seriously, there's an element of humanity that just can't admit the space travel is really frigging difficult, and they'll be working for any kind of solution that could possibly change that forecast. Can't kill the dream!
 
If Earth's magnetic field is strong enough to trap so much of the solar wind as to be effectively impassable- nothing is absolutely impassable, except singularities probably, there will be a proportion and a magnitude to this-

then apart from any geological and evolutionary effects (which there WILL be if you're trying to generate a Jovian magnetic field from a small rocky planet, unfortunately), technologically you've just made maglev enormously easier, possibly prevented the development of radio through enormous background noise, and made this - http://www.launchloop.com/- so much easier that hey, space.

Lofstrom Loops may be so much more practical under those conditions that it would be possible to launch capsules with metres of shielding, controlled by mechanical analogue (clockwork) computers- and there we are in orbit, possibly on a far greater scale than at present.
 
There are proposals to drain the belts using hundred-kilometer charged cables suspended from satellites, interacting with the ions up there to divert them harmlessly into Earth's atmosphere. Given the economic and strategic benefits of having orbiting communications and electronic surveillance satellites, and the interest in sending spacecraft beyond LEO, I could see the US and its allies (maybe the Soviets, too) cooperate on dispersing the belts if they realize the problem. That might compromise the Aurora, but I'm not sure.

The proposals from Tethers Unlimited say that the belts can be drained to 1% in two months, but that time would presumably increase for a stronger set of belts.

If the satellites were ever disabled or removed, the belts would recharge in short order.
 
JennyB wrote:
Let's suppose that the conspiracy theorists are right in this at least, and by the mid-Sixties scientists have judged that the Van Allen belts are indeed impassible, not only to humans, but also to any electronics. That leaves only the possibility launching from the polar regions, which would obviously be prohibitively expensive.

What is the effect on popular culture of realizing that even the nearest reaches of 'Outer Space' are inaccessible for the current generation, and perhaps forever?

Actually as I understand it current theory is that the belts will continue to gain for at least a while yet but that's why we've the evidence of magnetic pole reversal. When the magnetic field resets the Van Allen's release all their trapped particles. (Which contrary to claims of Armageddon are mostly travelling pretty much parallel to the earth's surface by this point so will go winging off into the cosmos not sterilize the planet :) ) So we should actually expect the levels to increase slowly though how high they might get is open to question.

The effects? Unmanned, heavily shielded satellites which are even more expensive than now since they would still obviously have great utility but we might still be awaiting manned flights. We'd still dream though to which I'd point out that launching Orion-boom-booms from the poles was a suggestion and enough shielding to ignore the belts is going to be trivial for something like that let alone the amount each flight would increase those levels.

And with understanding there's still the possibility of 'draining' the belts as Polish Eagle points out.

Of course with levels in the belts as high as suggested I think we've missed a problem... Polar exploration, (let alone people living near the high artic) would be a problem as they keep dying of some 'mysterious malady' of a wasting disease that might render living, exploring or working in such areas impossible :)

Randy
 
Why wouldn't the Soviets test this to see if it really is true? And then keep the results secret, so they could make sure the space race is killed forever (until they land on the moon, of course).

This would fuel, many, many conspiracy theories. Dead astronauts we never knew about, of course dead cosmonauts--compare to the conspiracy theories that Yuri Gagarin was not the first man in space but only the first surviving man in space.
 
You mean, the Americans really landed on Moon? :eek::rolleyes:

On a more serious note, I heard once a real scientist ( phisicist from CERN actually ) doubting that they really made the landing exactly because of VA belts...:confused:
 
Top