Can Quiet, Efficient 'Space Elevators' Really Work?

space.com ^ | February 21, 2014 12:25 PM | Leonard David

[taxcontrol]

The idea should be advanced so that there are two ribbons that are in motion. One side going down, the other side going up. The tether would then be a pulley in space to provide the gravitational anchor.

This would allow the lifting power to be driven by the ground station and would allow for multiple “ups” and multiple “downs” at the same time.

[Starstruck]

He said back in 2003 that ten years after people stopped laughing about the space elevator — work would begin on it. He thought that people had stopped laughing that year

My bad. I giggled a little in 2008.

[lurk]

62,000 miles of any wire or ribbon, of any material, would be massively heavy all on its own and end up breaking under its own weight.

Not to mention sun, moisture, wind, airplanes.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Ok, so the line gets cut what happens? Does it fly into space hitting satellites, like in the picture Gravity? There is so much crap up there, what havoc would it reek?

[ckilmer]

I’ve seen experiments with carbon nanotubes. I don’t know how successful they were.

[SunkenCiv]

No. Next! Thanks ckilmer.

[The Antiyuppie]

“Arther C Clarke wrote a paper on this back in the 50s.”

Well, the idea he had before that - geosynchronous communications satellites - seems to have worked out OK...

[Army Air Corps]

Don forget giant robots piloted by some dudes with purple hair.

[Jonty30]

Screw the elevator. I want an escalator.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

The jet-streams.

[Vince Ferrer]

While I think this is technologically possible, I have heard that there are other techologies that are projected to be cheaper.

[Little Ray]

Depends. Top portion will remain stationary or go UP. The bottom portion will collapse.
Problem is if they are cut at high enough altitude, up to about the mid-point, when the bottom portion will collapses there will be enough wrap around the Earth. A lot of it should burn up, or otherwise come apart, though.

[Flag_This]

"How does this promote NASAs mission to make Moslems feel good about themselves?"

When they blow it up their self-esteem will be enhanced.

[GeronL]

there is probably too much space junk and other things.

[from occupied ga]

Only if the cable can be made of unobtanium which has sufficient tensile strength

[Moonman62]

"People will laugh and ask why did we ever do space rockets…it's a dumb idea," Swan said.

I statement like that makes me want to dismiss this guy as a con artist or a kook.

[mcshot]

Test dumbies? Send thjeir best first with wife in tow.

[from occupied ga]

would be massively heavy

If made out of carbon one foot in diameter, 18,193,470 tons. I suspect that carbon nanotube cable 1 foot in diameter couldn't even come close to supporting 18 million tons plus other stresses.

[Carthego delenda est]

Bean stalk + Viagra = space elevator

[Crolis]

Seems like something that massive would be affected by lunar cycles.