[Vendome]

I thought there were possibilities using lasers or microwave.

[Pontiac]

According to space systems engineer Peter Swan, Director of the International Space Elevator Consortium, this device is about three to four decades away.

I think I first read about space elevators when I was a teen more than thirty years ago.

I don’t think they are any closer to reality now.

Anybody remember the space tether experiment failure of STS-75.

A space elevator would generate a considerable amount of current traveling down the shaft.

Space Tether Experiment

[Cincinatus]

Although there are many technical problems with the "space elevator" (for example, atmospheric corrosion of carbon nanotube structures make the structure's long-term viability questionable), even if it is ever built, it cannot be used to transport people. It traverses the van Allen radiation belts too slowly, causing excessive radiation exposure to human passengers.

Great for cargo, but people will still need rockets to go to space, both to LEO and beyond GEO from the space elevator terminus.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

It will take a super-material to support the weight.

[Vince Ferrer]

Supposedly the economics of Spacex’s fully reusable launch vehicles are better than a space tether. I doubt this will be used, as a catastrophic accident would cause 10,000 miles or so of cable to come down anywhere around the equator, and there are populated areas on the equator.

[norwaypinesavage]

The problems are not trivial. The article proposes a 60,000 mile "ribbon". That's a fair amount of slack, considering the geo-synchronous orbit altitude is 22,500 miles. Nevertheless, a 60,000 mile long cable has to be at least able to support it's own weight.

I recall in the 70's, visiting a oil rig support supplier. They had sensors to drop into oil wells to determine the exact position of the well point. The sensors could be dropped as much as one mile. The sensor weighed 1-2 pounds. The electrical cable to connect it weighed hundreds of pounds, and could only support its own weight plus the sensor for several hundred feet. Steel cable was used to support it beyond this.

But, of course, the steel cable must also support its own weight. There were huge (8 foot diameter)coils of high strength one inch diameter steel cables to simply drop this little sensor into an oil well. All this was for a ONE MILE elevator, to drop a 2 pound sensor into an oil well.

A 60,000 mile elevator is much much more complicated than just 60,000 times worse.

[Flick Lives]

Even if we had the material technology to build such a ribbon, how would we deploy it? A spool big enough to hold 60,000 miles of ribbon would be pretty big!

[I want the USA back]

This is a really dumb idea.

[SES1066]

This is a prime candidate for NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) action. The legal filings would probably equal the height of the 'space elevator' and end it before it gets started.

Arthur C Clarke came up with the idea.
While Mr Clarke is given the major credit for popularization of the concept and value of geosynchronous / geostationary satellites he is much less so for the idea of the "space elevator" although his novel on it, "Fountains of Paradise" (1979) was quite enjoyable and informative. However, the concept of space elevators date back to a thought experiment by the great Russian space theorist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, in 1895. Since then there have been multiple iterations, studies and story lines about it. Funny enough, almost simultaneous with Clarke's novel came fellow Brit-born author, Charles Sheffield's "Web Between Worlds" which I think did a better stab at the required engineering, but that is my opinion!

[IMR 4350]

Why build a space elevator when I’ve got some magic beans I’m willing to sell and they will do the exact same thing at half the price.

[LurkingSince'98]

this is an example of folks starting on a project without even a basic understanding of fundamental principles.

The electrical potential (Voltage) between the ground and the atmosphere above: "...ground‐level electric fields ranged from 3.2 to 7.6 kV per meter."

For all the gory details go here:>>

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2011JD015710/pdf

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

I love it when liberals become "scientists" 'cause they believe in magical thinking - whatever hair-brained scheme they can think up, can happen just because they thought of it.

Lurking'

[aomagrat]

How long would it take an elevator to go 60,000 miles.

And the thing would be a terrorist magnet.

[mfish13]

Is it like the Maxwell House Elevator? Good to the last drop.

[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.