By 2119, the thorny problems that make AI so problematic in an environment that is not precisely controlled may, at last, have gone the way of playing chess, into the solved basket- along with the fine motor skills that most humans possess in abundance and robots currently lag. If that comes to pass, the kind of dreams of robotic systems to do the kind of cooking and cleaning housework that were depicted in mid-20th century SF may finally become practical.
]]>And when are we going to see the movie version of Footfall? I. WANT. IT. NOW.
Footfall, I don't have anything for you, but how about Ringworld? Courtesy of Jeff Bezos: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/09/amazon-making-ringworld-snow-crash-and-lazarus-one-tv-series.html (Oh and Snowcrash and Lazarus, which I had not heard of before this, too)
]]>Isp of existing ones (Xenon, I believe) are around 600-700, compared to the 380-450 of current leading chemical/cryogen rockets
I think, perhaps, you might have conflated NTRs, which do tend to run in the high hundreds to perhaps 1,000sec with ion drives, which ran in the low thousands range 1,000 to 5,000 sec from the outset. I will just add that the further one has to travel, the more bang for the buck you get out of high Isp/low thrust motors. Mars is one of those destinations where you really can't just ignore the kind of ramp up time you get with limited acceleration the same way you can for outer System missions. This may be one of the reasons that systems like Vasimr and other types of motors that allow you to trade off thrust and Isp are as trendy as they seem to be.
]]>Chesty Puller was a very famous US Marine General. Not especially a nice person. But in the mid-thirties, some industrialists in the US really didn't like what FDR was doing... and actually talked to him about a real, honest-to-Ghu coup.
Right idea, wrong marine general. I think you meant Smedley Butler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
My understanding is that the coup plotters were not sufficiently careful in selecting a military man to be the front man for the coup, because Butler voted for FDR.
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