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To evaluate interstellar migration as a population control measure we must examine its economics. Here the unknowns are obviously great, but from data assembled by A. V. Cleaver it appears that the foreseeable cost of a rocket ship could hardly be as little as $50 a pound... How many pounds of ship would be required per man? ... let us borrow from our knowledge of atomic submarines, which are perhaps not too dissimilar... the submarine Seawolf weighs 3,000 tons and carries 100 men, a burden of 60,000 lbs. per man. A spaceship of a similar design, at $50 a pound, would cost $3,000,000 per man travelling in it... to solve our national population problem by this means we would have to spend 20 times as much as our entire income on this purpose alone, allowing nothing for any other use, not even for food. |
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