Re: Anyone preparing for a diaster such as 2012?
I think the key point here is that when 2012-type events, etc., roll around, the In Crowd will be prepared and protected at our expense, and we'll get the wrong end. Simply put, it's good to be the king...
Far as I can tell, nobody's investing the Common Weal toward any realistic effort to sustain humanity when the big one goes down. That's understandable when one's grasp on the ability to wield the public treasury is dependent on providing a regular diet of bread and circuses. Bread and circuses are expensive, and tend not leave a lot of wiggle room for investing in realistic solutions to your average realistically potential apocalypse.
How to survive the planet killer? Hmmm... How 'bout, "...and now for something completely different...?"
By definition, planet killers leave dead planets.
...At least for as long as it takes for them pesky microbes to get their acts together all over again...
So, essentially, we gots to get us a breeding population up and off this third rock, and into a position to carry on regardless.
So, where to?
Actually, probably <span style="font-style: italic">not</span> so far after all. How about synchronous orbit? 23K miles, or thereabouts.
So what to put there?
I wonder if anyone's read up on Dyson. He proposes things like Ringworlds, and Dyson Spheres. A bit ambitious for my taste, but maybe a concept that lends itself to steps and stages.
Then there's the space elevator, as dream reality that's just about reached the point where current technology sees potential answers. By chance, there could be some really dilly concurrent benefits.
First, lets explain how a space elevator works.
You, me, somebody establishes a permanent station in geosynchronous orbit. Yes, Virgina, it does have to be directly over the equator. So establishing an equatorial touchdown ground zero is in order,
Then, one extends an immensely strong, tough filament down toward sea level or thereabouts. For reasons that involve symmetry and orbital mechanics, it becomes desirable to extend another outward, toward cislunar orbit, more about this later. If this downward filament stands the immense strain its own weight will begin to impose as it gets nearer to sea level, it will eventually extend to earth, and can be secured. Very simply put, a strand that can stand such stresses is going to literally shrug off the additional stresses that elevator cars and their loads will impose.
Not putting one's eggs in one basket is the reason we're doing this all in the first places; so once you have one, you keep on building more. If you stop, you're not smart.
So what does this buy us all? Many things, pretty much all of them desirable.
First, we have an independent habitat, and communications and commerce with that habitat does not require chemical rockets or any other kind of reaction mass expenditure.
Second, we have free electric power in vast quantities. How, you ask? Well, if one moves a conductor within an electromagnetic field, one generates current. The space elevator filament is moving within the earth's magnetic field. Experiments with the space shuttle and conductors have generated enough current to completely burn through the filament, and that was when extended earthward only a short distance. The limits of power generation are bound only by one's ability to carry the vast quantities of current involved.
Third, we have interplanetary boost capability, with no energy expenditure. How? well, There's that other filament extending toward cislunar orbit. If it's the same length, its end is moving a 4 times orbital velocity, or roughly 72 KMPH. Once past the orbital base, reaching the far end requires only brakes, centrifugal force does all the work. Once at the end, let go, and ride the whiplash into interplanetary space.
Anybody see any of their governments contemplating such projects?
More's the pity; because it reveals the utter lack of vision extant among the intellectual lightweights we've been electing to employ our common wealth. So for the forseeable present, we are engaging our common wealth in a wealth transfer shellgame. That Ponzi scheme won't hold together forever; and we really do have some more genuine issues to address before the cards all fall flat, and all our collective pockets get turned inside out, folks. Even without any planet killers, those dark ages are approaching. Our fiscal policy demands such.
Now, then; none of this is for me. I won't live long enough to even see this get well started. But for you younger folks; this thing has legs. Get crackin'...
Greg