Not so much that, I'm thinking, as the weight of an effective receiving antenna, vs. that needed to collect a narrow laser...

Doesn't answer my question. If you can show (as if you really had to prove anything but the ability to pay) that you're already doing something majorly philanthropic, does that give you a free pass to go alone? ("Hey, I built a hospital for sick kids! Do I still have to bring one along??") The Gates Foundation was…

Agreed. You can't decide not to create something of value because the present-day barbarians might try to destroy it. (otherwise, to use an admittedly tired cliche, they win)

Either way, it's a slow ride through the VanAllen belts. And not everyone wants or needs to go to geostationary orbit, which is the only point at which you can get off the thing, and be in orbit...

Why? How do you know they don't already do such philanthropy? Whatever else you think of him, would The Gates Foundation give Bill a pass?

"...the shuttles were never going to leave low earth orbit..."

It does have a long and familiar track record, but the flights of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 were not good days for their crew...

"...my first thought would have been that they wouldn't let some private people even go near it. "

Azetoth: Amen to that...

Not until someone can answer this...

Not until someone can answer this...

I thought it was 'switch genes.' Oh well...

"This is why Superman works alone...!"

Our next story; 'New Findings about the Seventh Planet...'

You do. All of 'you' do. There is no 'master' Universe we can use as some absolute frame of reference, any more then there is for space. Theirs is just as real and valid to them, as what you observe is to you. Only events and history of them are different, from the infinitesimal to the radical.

"...then what determines which universe "path" my consciousness takes?"

If so, they'll be laughing from Tau Ceti...

They'd probably go with a CG newsreader head. For their purposes, it's easier to to tweak, change and improve, than hardware...

And of course the stargate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which wasn't meant to be a drug trip, and yet...

"There's not enough comonality between the the two destinations to use the Moon as a "practice run". "