Looking back across 10 years of space

Recently I ran across a file I wrote in 1995, ten years ago, when i had just gotten my first formal technical paper presented and published, and was readying to go on to similarly communicate to the world re my kinetic structure transportation concepts. I copy the file below, but first, what caused the apathy evident in the lack of change, as of ten years later? I think it has to do with egos and business interests; yet also, that it may suggest "future shock" in an already overloaded mental state: too much change to cope with. That it could make the future so very much easier, does not address today's needs for stability.

Here is that file:

6space96.txt Rough Draft of Abstract, 500 words max
950813 JEDCline

"Segmental Wet-Launch of a Prefab Toroidal Space Habitat: Toward an Aggressive Space Colonization Option for the Near Future"

by James Edward David Cline e-mail: j.e.d.cline1@genie.geis.com Independent Researcher

The possibility of building a true, fully functional space settlement in the near future is improved if there is a way to build it cheaply, safely, and with the potential of being an obviously significant step toward solving many of humanity's impending problems. Such a way is found by backtracking over technological ground which was bypassed in the heat of the race to a different goal, and re-assembling the technological building blocks toward the subject goal. The proving-out of the long accepted concept of a nearly self-sufficient, nearly earth-normal interior space habitat is a necessary milestone toward large-scale expansion of human civilization off-planet; three such scenarios are itemized below. A one-centrepetal-g-interior rotating toroid of 1 mile diameter, research home for 1,000 people, could be built of segments consisting of pre-assembled modules each 100 feet long and 30 feet in diameter. Before launch of the modular prefab segments, the entire set of segments would be tested linked in the toroidal configuration while yet on the ground to initially optimize the myriad interacting systems of electromechanical and living natures. Through designing each as a pre-assembled habitat module which serves as its own fuel tank during launch, most of the airframe and tankage penalty is eliminated. The engines used during the launch of the module could be built into just enough airframe to glide them back to the launch site after each module's launch; the flight and docking would all be teleoperated from the ground. A strap-on airbreathing booster module would also return after each launch. These prefabricated segments could be emplaced on site in LEO docked end-to-end in the spoked wheel configuration, thusly built prior to the arrival of the first human presence there so as to greatly lower cost and increase safety. Three forms of large-scale potential near-future space colonization include (1) the original L4 and L5 locations of habitats built largely of lunar materials, requiring a strong lunar infrastructure first; (2) conversion of near-earth asteroid material into space habitats aggregating in internal area equal to 1,000 times that of the Earth's surface, needs to be done by highly sophisticated robotics or by human presence at high initial risk; and (3) a scenario utilizing active kinetic structures continuously linking surface equatorial sites with the synchronous Clarke Belt, where millions of the subject space settlements could be built, housing tens of billions of people with their agriculture and light industry, including any or all of the present surface population. All of these scenarios hinge on the functionality of the near-earth-normal-interior space habitat concept, provable by this project.