(Given the nature of the topic, I'm searching for the elusive more serious side of the bakery).

Given the repetitive nature of problems like these, the UN should really invest in much more heavy air transport, capable of landing on rumpled patches of brown earth. Give the ailing Russian airline industry something to munch on, like a fleet of Condors and some skycrane helicopters. But, they complain of the costs. I'm also thinking a few of the German CL 160 cargo blimps, which was a stalled project for lack of funding in 2002.

Are there alternative solutions that the halfborg hive can dream up?

Cheers to Libya's open door.
-- RayfordSteele, Jul 15 2004

a pretty interesting paper on the subject http://lu.fme.vutbr...s2002/PAPERS/P9.PDF
[xclamp, Oct 05 2004]

the space elevator http://www.space.co...levator_040629.html
[xclamp, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

random, halfbakery