So Werner von Braun's V2 was merely a precursor to Fedex gone horribly wrong? Who knew? Actually, with today's microprocessors & GPS & miniature drones/helicopters, it probably already is feasible to deliver mail robotically -- especially if everyone puts one of those "catcher" things on their roofs that the railroads used to use to transfer mail w/o stopping. Of course, the U.S. Postal system is quickly going the way of the telegram, so only high-time-value items (e.g., pizza & pot (Cal. only)) would make delivery economical. At 08:53 AM 8/10/2010, Victor Miller wrote:
And then there's "Rocket Mail" -- one of my favorite forays of the postal service into (wildly impractical) technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mail
On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 10:56 AM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
Aha! Combo satellite dish & pizza catcher: order the pizza & Netflix together...
Considering the fact that several centuries of math & computers were funded by calculating shell trajectories, we ought to be able to put these calculations to more peaceful uses.
In New York & especially Chicago, around the turn of the (20th) century there was a pretty decent system of pneumatic tube transmission. I don't know if they were able to develop a roll-up pizza to deliver this way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube
Perhaps pizza delivery won't work this way, but the "Canwich" would be appropriate to deliver either via a gun trajectory or a pneumatic tube:
http://markonefoods.com/index.html
At 08:00 PM 8/9/2010, rcs@xmission.com wrote:
Pizza delivery! Every home will have a pizza catcher on the roof. --Rich
--------- Quoting Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com>:
FYI -- I had a similar idea a number of years ago to provide "cheap" L.A./SF flights. Relatively long acceleration & deceleration ramps required to keep passengers alive. Some significant problems in recovering the energy involved to reuse in next flight. Also, even minor changes due to air pressure/temperature can affect where the vehicle lands, so some steering mechanism is required.