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What do you think launch vehicles will like in the year 2100?
Assuming that there are no operating space elevators and that there is a need to send up at least a few thousand tons of payload to LEO every year and hundreds or even thousands of people.
I was wondering if by then some kind of nuclear thermal rocket engines might be acceptable for launch vehicles.
And if commerically viable fusion powerplants are developed by 2050, is it possible that fusion engines for launch vehicles would be available four decades later?
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Considering that there has been more technological progress in the past 50 years as the past 5000 years combined, that is a question that will be really hard to answer.
[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]
[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]
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Rather than making predictions based on years that are mulitples of 100, it may be more helpful to look at when new capabilities are expected to be operational. It's all guesswork of course, the more advanced the technology the greater the error. My predictions:
........................ Earliest ....... Latest
Lunar Outpost ... 2016 ........... 2020
Mars Landing ..... 2020 ........... 2040
RLV .................... 2020 ........... 2030
New propulsion .. 2020 .......... 2030 (replaces chemical for manned missions)
New propulsion .. 2030 .......... 2100 (to LEO)
Space Elevator .. 2025 ........... never?
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