Re: send humans to Titan, it isn't a question of physics, it's a question of time, technology and commitment

"a425couple"  wrote in message news:[email protected]...

from
https://spacedaily.com/t-a-real-group-of-scientists-and-engineers-spent-two-days-in-boulder-this-june-asking-what-it-would-actually-take-to-send-humans-to-titan-and-their-honest-answer-was-that-it-isnt-a-question-of-physics/

-------------------------------

We are at a level of hardware development when money and support instead of 
technology limit what we can do. Civilization has been here before, for the 
Romans, the West before the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution (1800) 
and toward 1900, just before AC electricity and gas engines enabled great 
leaps in transportation. In many ways we were no more advanced in 1800 than 
the Romans, and considerably behind in public water and sewer utilities.

https://conversableeconomist.com/2015/10/19/exonerating-henry-ellsworth-and-charles-duell-former-u-s-commissioners-of-patents/

Airliners today are little different from the 707 of the 50's, and slower. 
Military jet speed hasn't improved since the 60's, it has actually fallen 
from Mach 3 to below Mach 2. General aviation still follows the plan of the 
Spirit of St Louis and Curtiss Robin. Cars of the 50's and 60's could have 
everything they needed, PS, PB, AT, A/C etc. Regulations on emissions and 
fuel economy forced them to become electronic but Model Ts and As show up at 
the diner on Cruise Night. The phone system still accepts mechanical rotary 
dialing. Manually operated machine tools are nearly identical to those of 
WW1. Hand carpentry tools have changed little since Jesus learned them from 
Joseph. I've been forming car rust repair panels with similar tools as a 
medieval armor maker.

I'm aware of the advances, in fact I contributed to some such as color 
printing and cell phone digital radios. Almost all of it depended on 
improvements in the density of integrated circuit photo etch masks, which 
enabled growing computer complexity. A considerable amount of what we have 
now was born as concepts in or around the 1930's, such as computers, 
antibiotics, jets, radar, plastics, nuclear power etc.