There are two interesting developments in the aerospace field. The first is micromachinery. The same technology that permits the construction of integrated circuits with millions of elements on a chip can be adapted to making tiny mechanical systems. The accelerometers that control the deployment of airbags is an example of this technology. Scientists have developed small sensing systems and guidance systems. Systems that took up a filing cabinet full of complex gear a decade ago can now shrink in size to fit on a postage stamp! Complex scientific equipment like gas chromatographs have been reduced in size. So have laser gyroscopes. The Clementine spacecraft which was sent to the moon recently, used micromechanical technology extensively. Clementine looked for water while orbiting the moon. It may have found some. If so, it would be useful to a future lunar settlement.

The second technology is Global Positioning Systems (GPS). This technology was developed by the Navy to accurately position any target and any missile anywhere in the world. GPS was used during the gulf war. The technology increases the accuracy and decreases the unintentional casualties of aerial bombardment. But there have been a host of commercial applications for this technology. Everything from finding your way in an unknown city to measuring continental drift, to bringing an plane in for a perfect landing, to getting directions to a new restaurant, can be achieved using GPS. A network of satellites sends out a series of timed signals. By comparing signals from four satellites computers on the ground can determine very accurately - sometimes within fractions of an inch - the position of the receiver in space.

Imagine what might be possible combining both technologies. I have created SATELLITE PIZZA! A single restaurant located in Kansas could deliver pizza anywhere in North America within 5 minutes! Here's how it would work.

Customers would be issued a small smart card. On the surface would be a number of pads. The customer would step out to a drive way or parking lot, or patio, anywhere there was a clear view of the sky. They would then press the DELIVER HERE pad on the card. Then they would press the SELECT pad and touch one of the color images printed on the card to select the kind of pizza they wanted. They would then go to a phone, lift the handset, and press the DIAL button on the card after placing it near the mouthpiece. The card would dial the pizza number, send the GPS position, and the selection. The telephone account would be billed $10 or so for the pizza.

Meanwhile, back at the Kansas kitchen, the call is received, the pizza selected and shot on its way with a micro-rocket. The rocket would be guided by GPS to the precise spot selected by the customer. When the rocket got to the end of its journey, instead of exploding, it starts a small braking engine and neatly brings the pizza to a soft landing. The spent rocket and heatshield - weighing less than 1/10 the mass of the pizza - less than normal cardboard boxes - would be disposed of. The pizza would arrive hot having just re-entered the earth's atmosphere from space. As a matter of fact, the heating profile would be taken into account when designing the heat shield so the pizza would finish cooking during reentry.

Since tens of millions of calls would be received each night to a single kitchen, pizzas would be made before receiving the calls. A statistically significant number of orders for any type of pizza can be guaranteed. So, just by knowing the popularity of each assembly lines to make pizzas efficiently precisely the way people like in the quantities demanded can be set up. So, when a call comes in, there's a pizza just coming out of the oven ready to launch that's just the type ordered!

Kansas has a lot of wheat, tomatoes, and pigs. Just the things needed to make very good pizza. Delivering the finished product ballistically is the most energy efficient way to do things. Consider, taking a pig to Chicago by train, to be slaughtered and delivered by truck to Buffalo. There to be processed into pepperoni and sent to Idaho, to be assembled into a pizza which is delivered by auto to your front door in Boise, is energetically and logistically inefficient. Keeping the pig and all the fixings in Kansas, processing everything there into a finished product, cuts energy usage. Dragging things by truck over the ground or pushing things by plane through the air, is inefficient as well. Tossing things by ballistic missiles is much more energy efficient since you're not fighting air or ground friction. So, despite what one might think at first glance, a Kansas kitchen delivering pizza by miniature rocket actually uses less energy and fewer resources than the present methods. It also gets fresh, piping hot pizza delivered anywhere in North America (including the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico) in five minutes or less! Dominoes, eat your heart out!

The only thing stopping someone from doing this is the cost of the tiny rockets and guidance gear. Today such gear might cost millions of dollars a copy. But once the details are worked out, and once the devices are demanded in tens of millions of copies a night, they'd be stamped out like soda cans or gumballs! Their prices would be comparable.

This technology could be extended to include any item weighing 20 lbs or less. So, Sears could set up a distribution center in Kansas and deliver products anywhere anytime within five minutes of receipt of the order. With a cellular satellite phone a person trapped on a mountain top could obtain a pair of shoes on one order and a pizza on another, while they wait for rescue. Critical parts, supplies and equipment could be delivered in this way too. So doctors wouldn't have to wait on rare drugs or special equipment if someone's life were at stake.

Since everything originates from a single spot, collisions wouldn't be a problem. The minimum energy arc from the launch center to your front door is uniquely described in space. No other arc to anyone else's front door crosses it!

A dozen kitchens spread through agricultural regions around the planet could deliver food to the entire human population. The rocket fuel could be made from water. Sunlight would be used to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen. It would be liquified and stored until the rocket was ready to fire. It would then be pumped into the tiny tanks and lit off. The system would be what is known in the rocket trade as a 'blow down system.' The stuff is pressurized to 500 psi and no pumps are needed. The pressure also keeps the tankage stiff during blast off and reentry. The steppes of Brazil - where lots of cattle and wheat etc, are grown for export would be an ideal place to service South America. Europe and the Middle East would be serviced from Northern Africa (assuming political problems could be worked out). Africa from South Africa. Pakistan would be a good launch center to service Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. China gets two launch centers. One near the Gobi and one near the east coast of China. The Eastern center also serves Japan. The pacific would be serviced from Australia, and so on. No matter where you were on the planet you could obtain up to 20 lbs of food, supplies, clothing, consumer electronics gear, etc. in five minutes or less.

Large industrial centers would grow up around the distribution points, just like large industrial centers now grow up around highway interchanges. People could live anywhere and go to work via Virtual Reality data links to drive humanoid robots around to cook the pizza, clean the pans, make the pans, feed the chickens and grow the spices (for Tandori chicken! yum!) Even beer and soft drinks could be delivered. Of course for these the heat shield would be designed differently. Just like beer cans, soda cans, and cans of peas have different linings, so to, the various products would have different aeroshells custom built for the journeys they undergo. The liquid oxygen can even be evaporated through the payload capsule to keep beer and such icy cold until delivered!