The Hundred Gram Mission

by Navin Weeraratne

  [xli] Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind. Go get it, you’ll thank me.

  [xlii] Peter Diamandis talks about this in a Startalk interview.

  http://startalkradio.co/show/x-prize-part-1/

  http://startalkradio.co/show/x-prize-beyond-space/

  [xliii] Claudio Maccone is popularizing the idea of flying a telescope to 550 AU (or more). At this distance, it can use light lensed by the Sun’s own gravity. This would boost the telescope’s power by 100 million times.

  http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=785

  [xliv] Calcutta, I am told, is a shit hole.

  [xlv] The UN projects 9.7 billion, but I've pushed this to ten for a sexier number.

  Of great concern is that Africa's population is expected to double. Countries that underdevelop human capital, pay quite the price, later.

  http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html

  [xlvi] Birth rates are slowing worldwide, but fertility more than death rate is the bigger determinant here. Currently the world is growing by 230,000 people a year. I've assumed a decrease in percentage, but a steadier overall number.

  http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_growth

  [xlvii] Ministry of State Security. This is China’s ‘secret service.’

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_State_Security_(China)

  [xlviii] Chinese bases, all the way West to Africa.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_of_Pearls_(Indian_Ocean)

  [xlix] This is a real thing. Chinese companies often hire – or rent - white men to be figureheads at events or signings. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/06/29/china.rent.white.people/

  [l] The Shkval torpedo is incredible. It essentially flies under water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval

  [li] http://www.colombosevengin.com/

  [lii] Literally, [little] white boy. Sri Lankan nicknames are often ironic.

  [liii]Perkins Observatory, run by my old school, Ohio Wesleyan University, is where the Wow! signal was received. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

  [liv] By forming a gas pocket around itself, a body can in principle move through a liquid as fast as it if does through air. It would, in essence, be flying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation

  [lv] Khat is a narcotic plant, common in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. It is restricted or banned in the West. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat

  [lvi] Russia's version of GPS. https://www.glonass-iac.ru/en/

  [lvii] The Toyota Hilux is the most popular vehicle among insurgents, worldwide. http://www.newsweek.com/why-rebel-groups-love-toyota-hilux-74195

  [lviii] I'm assuming the S-97 Raider, doesn't end up cancelled, like everything that isn't the F-35. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-97_Raider

  [lix] Astronaut Candidates.

  [lx]

  Any vessel whose orbit intersects the orbits of two worlds. Travellers can use them to hitchhike between the worlds. Aldrin Cyclers (named by Buzz Aldrin, who came up with the idea in 1985) would cycle between Earth and Mars. Buzz can tell you more: http://buzzaldrin.com/space-vision/rocket_science/aldrin-mars-cycler/

  [lxi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Appropriations_Subcommittee_on_Defense

  [lxii] Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, Neil Degrasse Tyson (2012).

  [lxiii] Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future, Robert Zubrin (2013).

  [lxiv] Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, Neil Degrasse Tyson (2012).

  [lxv] I'm borrowing the term 'Tin Can' space station from the Amazing Eclipse Phase RPG. http://eclipsephase.com/

  [lxvi] Uigher (allegedly) for "I will fuck your mother."

  [lxvii] http://www.cgwic.com/LaunchServices/LaunchSite/JSLC.html

  [lxviii]

  Just an extrapolation of the Shenlong, China's military space plane.

  http://atimes.com/2016/01/chinas-shenlong-space-plane-revealed-as-part-of-growing-space-warfare-program-gertz/

  [lxix] Jason Morrison in the "The Transcript Humorist," 2000.

  [lxx] He is incorrect. The British first split the atom, but Snyder wouldn't know that. http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/31864

  [lxxi] The ISI is Pakistan's biggest intelligence organization. It is quite happy to work with terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda. It self-finances through selling heroin, has recruited suicide bombers, and knew of Osama Bin Laden's Abbotabad safe house. They have a history of planning attacks against Indian, Afghan, and American targets.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26isi.html

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Services_Intelligence

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/9109457/Stratfor-Osama-bin-Laden-was-in-routine-contact-with-Pakistans-spy-agency.html

  [lxxii] 1362-1923 AD. Secularization began in the 19th century, however.

  [lxxiii] This is of course, a projection.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_growth

  [lxxiv] Betty Friedan's study on the unhappiness of women, in the 1950s. TLDR - If you're busy doing what other people of expect you to do, you never get to be happy, doing what you want to do.

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17573685-the-feminine-mystique