[Grendel9]

Sure glad to hear they've allotted for avoiding space debris! <>g<> You ingenues ready to try for that 50 grand prize?

[satchmodog9]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1490794/posts

[manwiththehands]

... three-feet across but just half the width of a pencil. ...

That's a fat pencil!

[Charles Henrickson]

[SouthernFreebird]

I'd hate to be in it during a power failure.

[Iscool]

I'm not interested til they get a casino on the moon...Talk about a boring vacation...May as well just hang out in the back yard...At least there's some shade there...

[hang 'em]

Wait 'til a muslim flies into it... Mama Mia!

[Boundless]

> That would open up the possibility of tourists ...

We can hardly imagine what it will open up.

Nuclear power for one. Radwaste (and severe hazmats
generally) would no longer be a problem - just run 'em
up the rope and let 'em loose when their arc takes them
right into the Sun.

Another - global warming - if it's real, we can put
huge thin sun shades in between the Earth and Sun, at
one of the Lagrangian points.

[inquest]

If they construct this thing, that means "The Man" will have a significant amount of control over who does and does not go into space. Personally, I'd rather our resources instead go towards developing more efficient rocket designs.

[Tribune7]

It makes me wonder.

[Palladin]

Didn't they try this before...in Babel?

[manwiththehands]

I'm tellin' ya, nanotechnology is where EVERYTHING is going.

[solitas]

ping

[KevinDavis]

[narby]

Space debris is the Achilles heal of this thing. Since the thing will have to extend beyond geosync in order to counterbalance it, every satellite lower than perhaps 30k miles WILL hit it some day. Every one of them. I'd bet it would have a strike a day.

Between the work to remove every significant chunk of space debris, and the launches to put the first elevator in operation, a space elevator is a non-starter.

The way to go to space is a turbine/ram/scram/rocket aircraft that can fly literally every day with only fuel required. Such an aircraft CAN be built with existing technology if we get at it instead of fooling around doing Apollo 2.0. Granted, it will not have heavy lift capability, but large structures can be launched with throw away boosters until we get space manufacturing in place.

Apollo 2.0 and space elevator talk only distract us from what is doable.

[MarineBrat]

I've done "Stairway to Heaven" on Christmas Eve in Cambodia!

[JackDanielsOldNo7]

[RightOnline]

Think I'll take the stairs, thanks.

[ovrtaxt]

Cool! Hey, mike- maybe you'll finally be able to reach Uranus!