Inflatable Space Elevators!

[My Wife Hates CIV]

this is not possible today - the tower would need to be capable of withstanding high-velocity winds at extreme altitudes. and to put basically a airport at the top. the cost alone will keep this project firmly on the ground. right now this is a pipe dream, puffin too much of that gas I would say.

[pchang]

Theoretically - a ribbon made of carbon nanotubes might be able to form a true space elevator, but we don't know how to manufacture carbon nanotubes into ribbons of any reasonable length.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

In 2014, diamond nanothreads were first synthesized.[4] Since they have strength properties similar to carbon nanotubes, diamond nanothreads were quickly seen as candidate cable material as well.[5]

not making lengths of 25k miles yet... but because the are manufactured in a controlled way it's just now a matter of time and will.

[My Hubby Loves Civ]

This is a fantastic concept, but quite impractical. It will be made out of inflatable segments of Kevlar lined material, the fact that it may be filled with high pressure hydrogen, makes it a target for terrorist vandalisation, and a highly explosive target at that.

Because of its vast scale,I would think that there would be no way to defend its entire height and base from assault effectively.

[Dinner]

I doubt a material exists which could survive the stresses of this design.

[My Hubby Loves Civ]

I doubt a material exists which could survive the stresses of this design.

Certainly a good point to be made. With such an elevation differential, wouldn't the atmospheric winds create havoc with the tethers?

[onodera]

I think boring a slightly curving tunnel from India to the top of the Everest and launching rockets through it with a nuclear-powered railgun might be a more practical idea.

[giblets]

I doubt a material exists which could survive the stresses of this design.

What stresses? Weather balloons go higher than 20km without disintegrating.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

well for one... coriolis force. which influences objects in a rotating system. so think about a 20k mile cable. I think it can be done...

another one to think about... vibrational harmonics is another problem. The cable will have a natural resonant frequency, and if excited (say, by whatever you're sending up this thing) the vibrational energy could exceed tolerances of the material.

this would be a long ass cable.

[My Hubby Loves Civ]

According to the article it will take 10 years to build and cost roughly $5 billion. In reality that translates into 35 years to materialise and $500 billion. Perhaps by then, they will really have the quirks all worked out!

[Thoth]

What stresses? Weather balloons go higher than 20km without disintegrating.

Weather balloons don't have terrorists plotting to blow them up.

[Sava]

i guess science finally made a condom that could fit me