[nuke rocketeer]

He seems hopeful it will happen soon. We'll see. Right now in my old age, it seems like all the talk of fusion power being 'right around the corner'.

[Egon]

Disembodied voice: "2nd floor: lingerie, make-up, rebreathers, jewelry, micro-meteors, and Tang. Watch that first step, please!"

[lafroste]

I had read that the space elevator wouldn't work beacause the tensional stress required in the cable was unendurable by any known material. Has that changed in the recent past?

[Red Badger]

This is the modern version of the Hindu Rope Trick!........

[Military family member]

According to the article, the elevator would travel at speeds as slow as 10 MPH. The international space station is 220 miles above the earth? Who's going to sit on an elevator for 22 hours?

Look, if we can perceive of technology capable of 200-300 mile high elevator, then why not look to develop technology similar to that from Star Trek--the transporter, or the shuttles--which could get a person from the ground to space in mere minutes? After all, if we're going to fantasize about future modes of transportation, then let's really use our imagination.

It seems to me that even if this guy is serious, he's also looking in the wrong direction for scientific advancement.

[Barney59]

“Once you reduce the cost to almost a Fed-Ex kind of level, it opens the doors to lots of people, lots of countries, and lots of companies to get involved in space,” Edwards emphasized. No longer will space travel be limited to the United States, Europe, Russia, China, and other major players

Hmm, this strikes me as a BAD thing actually... with the current state of terrorists and wackos around the globe... if you catch my drift..

[Sarajevo]

Wasn't this same concept proposed in the book "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson back in '93?

[eyespysomething]

Know what I thought of?

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Watch out for the Vermicius Knids!!

[hosepipe]

This whole thing smells like "liberal"...
Can't put my finger on it but I detect the distinct odor of "Liberal" to it..
Like communism "sounds" good at first, but can't possibly work...
Socialism has always been the result of elite humans organizing primates or a political zoo..
Just the same, this scheme has scam written all over it..

One wonders what the "jet stream" will have to say about all this..
This sounds like multi-level marketing to me..
Calling all Amway distributors.!. the ultimate scam has finally arrived..

NOTE....
Leftist "scientists" <<-- are Moe, Larry and Curly with governmental support..

[darth]

Nanotubes are called that because of diameter not length. That said, current production is only a few microns long. However, we are working on joining them end-to-end to make cables. They have enough tensile strength to make the elevator feasible. As for power and the angular momentum questions, remember that we can generate ENORMOUS quantities of power by lowering asteroidal mass, e.g., mined platinum, DOWN the cable assembly (its not a single cable, but a group of joined cables). Imagine a turbine with a "head" of 22000 miles and you get the picture.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Don't reinvent the wheel--this has all been solved long ago. See Genesis 28:10-16.

[darth]

Some of the doubters need to visit the website for the company founded by the late Dr. Robert Forward, Tethers Unlimited. The plan is for multiple, mutually supporting cables in case one fails, which is insured by space debris. However, if the cable is cut it cannot fall far because of the cross linking. As for cutting the Earth's magnetic field lines and generating enormous electric power, single walled carbon nanotubes conduct electricity better than copper.