Rockets: So Old School? ("Space Elevator" coming?)

The Huffington Post ^ | November 8, 2012 | Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute

[Moltke]

So how are the Palis going to harass Israel with a frickin' space elevator? Clearly a racist idea.

[Rebel_Ace]

The technical problems of a “Space Elevator” are VERY DAUNTING. I believe that anyone that waves their hand and says, “We are only 30 or so years from seeing Space Elevators” does not really have a grasp on the MAGNITUDE of the issues facing such a structure.

Now, that being said, such things get done in a “divide and conquer” kind of way.

Material researchers that have no interest in “Space Elevators” will probably end up creating some carbon construct suitable for use as the “ribbon”.

Electrical Engineers looking at other problems might inadvertently find solutions to the power dissipation issue.

Breakthroughs in conventional rocket launching might make putting materials in orbit to build an elevator more practical.

I would never say “never”, but I am firmly in the “Not in 30 Years” camp.

[JimRed]

This is a really dumb idea.

Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here.

[JimRed]

For the uninformed that amounts to 7,600,000 Volts per kilometer of elevator height.

Can we harvest all those volts to fuel our Volts?