Gregory Benford (GB):
I still like 2-stage to orbit using proven technology for liftoff -- airplanes!
A big jet carrying a reusable rocket plane would find a niche market, I
think, and tourism could make it viable. People won't go into space until
the current failure rate of more than 2 percent falls by orders of magnitude!
This is an argument I've had with Jerry Pournelle for 20 years.
For long range, I like sails
for the missions outside the solar system. Flying a sail to within 0.2
astronomical units (AU) of the sun gives one a big kick, up to 10 AU/year,
if the extreme lightweight materials can be made. I just wrote a report
for JPL on near-horizon technology for doing this, so there's some hope,
particularly with aluminum wire grids of nanometer diameter and carbon
fiber sails, which I'm working on in the lab and theory right now. Still,
it'll take a while . . . . .
In Eater,
you write about a near-future science community that resembles,
in your words, "a shouting match more than a scholarly discourse." Do you
feel that this has already come to pass?
GB: I
was cautioning against practices I already see making science more hot-blooded
than it should be. I like competition, but jumping the gun just cheapens
the race -- especially if it's not penalized! But remember, the scientists
in Eater are dealing with an enormous threat, as well . . . .
Your last few novels,
Cosm, The
Martian Race, and
Eater, have been set in the near future. Do you think you are likely
to return to the galaxy-spanning space opera of The Stars in Shroud
or the Galactic Center books?
GB: I
don't think I'll return to the big epic scale right away. My ideas are
all near future now, though I do have in mind a series of novels set in
the very far future Earth . . . so no promises.
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