Ahh, but it's so much more fun to dream than read, linda.
my steps to colonise space:
1) send ship out to the asteroid belt, skip mars.
2) on the way to mars the ship sends out a probe to map the relative density of materials on the surfaces of asteroids near/in the belt, and choses its final destination based on that data.
3)ship detaches furtheur probes/pods that are really just thrusters with a fuel tank and some clamp/spike mechanism to latch on to asteroid rich in whatever materials you can find meeting the requirements to be turned to more fuel.
4) use fuel asteroid to refuel ship and probes
5) sending pods out again to pick up another rich asteroid.
6)latch ship onto asteroid fully refuled and 'break' to drop it close to earth orbit to be recovred for raw materials processing (in zero-G) to create more ships.
6)repeat from step 1 as ships become available.
things could be furthur streamlined by making the ship itself a smelter with a processing facilityand some sort of mass-driver to electrically fire raw materials where needed, somewhat saving on fuel.
perhapse even having a facility setup mid way to build the ships in zero-g?
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Sometimes a Hypography Forum Administrator
"With a big enough engine, even a brick will fly." -Law of Aerospace
