Space Elevator in 15 years?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by General Ludd
Space travel is never going to be really exciting. It takes a long time to do anything and there's no where worth while to go.

It took a long time to cross the Atlantic in 1500 and there wasn't much to see on the other side. In the long run it sure was better for Europe to do so though.

[Immortal Wombat]

That's arguable.

15 years is somewhat optimistic, shall we say. And of course, once we have built it, it'll break or fail or something. And being stuck in a lift 10 miles above the earth for 18 hours while the engineers try to fix things - that wouldn't be much fun.

[ghen]

I really don't care who or why, but the more funding to making nanotubes stronger faster gets my thumbs up. It's been half my life or more since they were 'discovered' :P (or at least buckeyballs whatever)

[Provost Harrison]

Just off the coast of Ecuador? Perhaps someone will attempt the world's highest dive

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by Sn00py
I read that scientists can create super strong nano-tubes that would work for the space elevator, just that it costs 100's of millions of dollars just to create a few meters of it.

That's not too bad as it costs 100's of millions of dollars for a few miles of a light rail that doesn't even go vertical.

[DRoseDARs]

God, not this again.

Yes it's possible to build but no it's unlikely to be done anytime soon. Politics, finances, and the actual science to build the thing aren't up-to-par yet. Also, the danger it poses should it fall down/deorbit (physically anchored/magnetically anchored) is FAR too great a risk. Accident, sabotage ... doesn't matter. The damage, the death toll, and the ecological devastation will be the same. Earth isn't ready for one. Luna? Mars? Sure, but we can't risk it here.

Sn00py:
I believe its length has to do with its projected mass, Earth's gravitational pull, Erath's rotational speed at the anchor point, and trying to balance all that out to keep the massive thing in orbit. Any shorter would bring it crashing down, any longer would send it flying off into deep space. When KSR did the research for his book series, he postulated that if a sizeable mass were added to the orbital end of such an elevator, such as an asteroid, then the elevator would have enough mass to allow for a shorter length and hence a lower orbit. In the books, all of Mars' and Earth's elevators were formed from asteroids taken from the Belt; their mass was chosen because after the cable itself was built enough mass would be left over to form the counterweight of the elevator. This is simple an extension of the same principle of counterbalancing the weight in modern building elevators.

From what I've read, the scientists proposing this project are not utilizing any meaningful counterweight at the orbital end of their elevator, hence its length. That may be their way of dealing/avoiding the debris found at lower orbits.

[FrostyBoy]

Well we should do it just to see if it's worth using or not. We can talk positive and negative about it, but we'll never really know until it's built and tested. If it doesn't work, then simply cut it off from the offshore platform and let it float into space with propulsions at the other end or something.

I'm sure the scientists working on it are taking everything into account.

[DRoseDARs]

I don't agree that we should do it just to see if we can. I'm sure we can (given enough effort and will to make the effort) and I'm sure the involved scientists are sensitive to the risks, but I'm convinced the risk is far too great given Humans only live on Earth and collectively we don't seem to care (witness endless conflict and developement of better ways of killing, both technologically and strategically). Depending on the mass of the cable itself, there might be enough of it crashing down to be equivalent to an asteroid impact, devastating the global ecosystem and threatening our survival. If the mass is smaller, there'd still be the risk of tsunamis in both the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, wide spread land-based damage through South America, equatorial Africa, possibly southern India, and Indonesia. This proposed cable is 2.5 times longer the the Earth's circumference at the Equator. If it were to come down, it'd wrap around Earth 2.5 times, probably a bit more since the Earth-bound end of it might be dragged along for a bit.

I just don't see the benefits of a Terran elevator out-weighing the risks posed by said elevator. There are overall safer means of getting into space that can serve our needs until it's safe to build a space elevator here. At the very least, wait to build a Terran elevator until we've established ourselves elsewhere sustainably. I'm convinced that that's do-able before the end of this century; I'm willing to venture that that's do-able before mid-century.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Sn00py
I'm sure the scientists working on it are taking everything into account.

This is Discover we're talking about. I don't believe I've ever seen an article in it that didn't have enormous bias. This one was written by the scientist himself. I take such things with a large grain of salt.

EDIT: at least, I read about it in Discover. Yahoo news isn't really much more reputable

[Odin]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
I don't agree that we should do it just to see if we can. I'm sure we can (given enough effort and will to make the effort) and I'm sure the involved scientists are sensitive to the risks, but I'm convinced the risk is far too great given Humans only live on Earth and collectively we don't seem to care (witness endless conflict and developement of better ways of killing, both technologically and strategically). Depending on the mass of the cable itself, there might be enough of it crashing down to be equivalent to an asteroid impact, devastating the global ecosystem and threatening our survival. If the mass is smaller, there'd still be the risk of tsunamis in both the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, wide spread land-based damage through South America, equatorial Africa, possibly southern India, and Indonesia. This proposed cable is 2.5 times longer the the Earth's circumference at the Equator. If it were to come down, it'd wrap around Earth 2.5 times, probably a bit more since the Earth-bound end of it might be dragged along for a bit.

I just don't see the benefits of a Terran elevator out-weighing the risks posed by said elevator. There are overall safer means of getting into space that can serve our needs until it's safe to build a space elevator here. At the very least, wait to build a Terran elevator until we've established ourselves elsewhere sustainably. I'm convinced that that's do-able before the end of this century; I'm willing to venture that that's do-able before mid-century.

That happened to the Mars cable in Red Mars when the anti-corporate rebels send the counterbalancing asteroid flying.

[chequita guevara]

This is to be a much thinner cable than in the Mars series. As far as the environment goes, it's much better to lauch sattelites from an elevator than using rockets, since rockets create massive amounts of air pollution and their seperation in space creates a lot of debris.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Oerdin


It took a long time to cross the Atlantic in 1500 and there wasn't much to see on the other side. In the long run it sure was better for Europe to do so though.

Golly, ya think thar'll be natives to rape, pillage and enslave? that would certainly make it worthwhile no matter what the cost. I've got a deep yarnin' for Martian slave women!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


Martian slave women!

Darn tootin Doc!

I'd hit it.

[Urban Ranger]

No, Ted, that's an Orion.

[Sandman]

I seriously doubt that a space elevator would be a planet-killer if it collapsed. Its mass is too heavily distributed to be a serious threat.

Captured asteroids, on the other hand, are a real menace.