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satelites in low solar orbits could manufacture and collect antimatter using solar radiation. once enough antimatter was collected the satelite could be maneuvered into earth orbit to harvest the antimatter for propulsion of spacecraft to mars.
lighter than air floating launch platforms could put the equipment for assembling these systems into orbit at a fraction of current costs. profits from satelite launch for comunications companies would fund the project.
an ocean based floating platform that rests partialy submerged when preparing for launches would ensure safety. then when the weather was perfect the platform, a toroidal shaped zepilen using geodesic design would ascend into the stratosphere and launch its payload.
a floating island city/state would provide a lagoon for protected semi submerged mooring for the launching platform.
the experience gained in building, financing, and governing this city/state would provide an operational armature for orbiting, interplanetary, and eventualy interstellar colonies/journeys.
i propose that this floating island city/state should be constructed on-line in virtual reality with citizens buying shares and virtual real estate that will one day become real.
the financial basis for this corporate construct should be supported by government bonds so that every investor can be cashed out of their citizenship/investment at any time. only interest on these bonds should be spent on the project.
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Someone tried this already (the ocean city thing), and it was called Oceania. They went belly up about ten years ago. Neat idea, they had a very libertarian constitution written up, but badly managed and not enough investors to get off the ground (so to speak). I do like the idea of an ocean based platform chugging out vast amounts of H2 and O2, though.
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nice idea. The one thing i don't understand is the "antimatter" part. Could you explain?
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