Manifold: Time
Chapter One
Reid Malenfant You know me. And you know I'm a space cadet.
You know I've campaigned for, among other things, private mining
expeditions to the asteroids. In fact, in the past I've tried to get
you to pay for such things. I've bored you with that often enough
already, right?
So tonight I want to look a little farther out. Tonight I want to
tell you why I care so much about this issue that I devoted my life
to it.
The world isn't big enough any more. You don't need me to stand here
and tell you that. We could all choke to death, be extinct in a
hundred years.
Or we could be on our way to populating the Galaxy.
Yes, the Galaxy. Want me to tell you how?
Turns out it's all a question of economics.
Let's say we set out to the stars. We might use ion rockets, solar
sails, gravity assists. It doesn't matter.
We'll probably start as we have in the Solar System, with automated
probes. Humans may follow. One percent of the helium-3 fusion fuel
available from the planet Uranus, for example, would be enough to
send a giant interstellar ark, each ark containing a billion people, ... read full excerpt from: Manifold: Time ebook