I know we like to experiment with technology for getting us to Mars on Earth but there has got to be a way to build a space dock where we can put the engineers in orbit and create everything up there.  There has got to be tremendous stresses placed on the crafts when putting them in orbit.  How about just simply launch everthing into orbit then put it together so the stress of re-entry will not have to first deal with the stresses of achieving escape from earth. 

So, build it and conceptualize it in space, launch it to a planet, land it, launch it from the planet, park it in earth orbit.  Use space elevator to come back down to earth.

:)

The internet is the new extension to our existing world.  Let's forget the many definitions of what the internet is a focus one what it is.  The internet is just 2 computers connected together. 

You are allowed by someone else to connect to their computer.  The internet is the medium by which it travels.  There has got to be a way to clarify that I can do what I want with my computer.  There has been an anti-spyware law that forbids people from installing malicous programs on my computer system remotely in hopes of phishing for data without my knowing (this type of activities is equivalent leaving a recording device in my house or hey maybe your house).  Then, there are those who monitor the traffic of the internet which is equivalent, literally, to tapping a phone line.

I want my computer to allow me to innovate and create things that help those do better.  As the space race takes off, as it is now, we will require faster computers capable of rending 3D images and speeds capable of transfering those 3D images.  Everything becomes connected and in ways become a new type of super organism where as the sun rises in one part of the planet and sets in another, you will not be able to notice the difference because the sun is always shining on one part of the planet and dark on another and then there is the twighlight in between.

We will have the capability to do things at home through the use of robotics and internet 2.  You could have arms attached to a treadmill that moves to where you want it to go and mimics your own hands with things like doing the dishes and turning on and off appliances.

Hopefully our connections to the future are kept.

I have a question. 

SpaceShipOne can create a vehicle that is designed to deliver a payload to the orbit of a Space Elevator but not one neccessarily connected to the ground.  Why can't a Space Tether be desigend to have a counter-weight at one end pointing away from the earth and another end pointing towards the earth with a type of "hooking" system designed to "catch" the payload at a certain altitude, bring it to higher orbit, then release it where the payload can continue on its way under the guidance of its own boosters.

This means SpaceShip one can be a constant launch vehicle using minimum energy.

"As you well know, appearances can be deceiving..."

- Agent Smith to NEO on the LOGOS