| ▲ | ben_w 14 hours ago | |
Spaceplanes have a nice visual aesthetic, but absent something much more energy-dense than chemical fuel, they'd still need to be multi-stage, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_Pegasus#/medi... My current fantasy for space access is an orbital ring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_ring A fantasy for all the same reasons as putting up a million data centre satellites (it's roughly the same size project), but somewhat more useful as it turns space from one of the most expensive and difficult places to go, to a long-distance high-speed rail line. | ||