passive_fist comments on In memory of Leonard Nimoy, most famous for playing the (straw) rationalist Spock, what are your top 3 ST:TOS episodes with him? - Less Wrong

10 Post author: shminux 27 February 2015 08:57PM

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Comment author: passive_fist 02 March 2015 04:27:32AM 1 point [-]

I don't remember exactly where I read that, but here's a page with some power calculations: http://launchloop.com/LaunchLoopHeating

100 billion tons/year may sound like a lot but you really do need to launch that much cargo in order to recuperate construction and operation costs. The 0.1 degree heating cited on that page is a bit optimistic since it doesn't take into account secondary effects.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 02 March 2015 04:33:52AM 2 points [-]

Ouch. Yeah, that's not reasonably viable.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 06 March 2015 07:21:06PM 2 points [-]

What, exactly, is the claim?

Is the claim that launching a ton of payload by launch loop heats the earth more than launching a ton by rockets? That is very hard to believe. To a first approximation, the energy savings of the launch loop are heat savings.

Or is the claim that launching enough payload to make a launch loop worthwhile is too much heat, either way?

Comment author: JoshuaZ 06 March 2015 07:48:53PM 0 points [-]

Good point. Hmm, now I'm confused.