In article <3e355673$1@news.povray.org>,
 "Andrew Wilcox" <awi### [at] unpuzzledcom> wrote:

> Pluto's a bit far.  Even just going to the moon would be a huge task.

And yet we were able to do it decades ago, and now have probes 
approaching the shock front where the solar wind hits interstellar 
space. Getting a small probe to Pluto within a couple years or even 
months would not be impossible with present technology, though it would 
be little more than an engine and fuel tank, a serious scientific probe 
would be heavier and slower. Build things in orbit so they don't have to 
survive liftoff stresses, and you can get a lot lighter. You can also 
pack a lot more fuel for the journey when you don't have to use so much 
getting off Earth.
He didn't give a timeline or any idea of infrastructure, but it is 
possible. Only thing is, there is little of commercial interest out 
there, a few unmanned probes would be all I expect. Everything else 
would concentrate in the asteroid belt and gas giants, particularly 
Jupiter and Saturn.

BTW, "insystem" would be a better term, "intersystem" would be travel 
between systems, not within one system.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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