On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 5:13 PM, (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

The other day someone suggested that a ship might just hover raher
than using a landing cradle or the like. They pointed out that
antigravity is a very old and very reliable tech.

Not gonna happen (at least not IMTU).

And it has nothing to do with practicality or physics (real or imagined).

The port regulations will require you to touch down, because they don't want there to be any legal question as to whether or not your ship actually "docked" at their location . . . so there will be no legal question as to whether or not they can charge you their normal docking fees.

Also, all ports with the capability to supply vessels with auxilliary power will likewise require ships to shut down their own power plants, so that they will have to pay for such power while docked.

And - in perfect bureaucratic circular thinking - because the power for any attempt at continual hovering will thus have to be supplied remotely (and thus continually risk loss of connection/strength), the port regulations will prohibit hovering in light of this "safety issue."

Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein

"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)

"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester

"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.