[presidio9]

[abigail2]

Thanks for the article. Great

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[The_Victor]

Long discussion of the this subject (same conference different writer) posted here.

[dljordan]

I'm wondering about static electricity build up. Remember the tether experiment where they got zapped with MUCH more electricity than they thought they would produce?

[scouse]

Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky proposed a tower thousands of miles high.

Shades of Nimrod and his multi-lingual work force. :^))

[Consort]

What about that enormous figure 8 that is traced in orbit and on the ground by orbit eccentricities?

[conster-nation]

It would take about a week for one to reach geosynchronous orbit...

The first space elevator would be built to carry only cargo, not people...

The toughest part about lifting people might be training them to endure bad music for a full week...

[Clock King]

Arthur C. Clarke -- The Fountains of Paradise

link

[Defiant]

Al Qaeda is already working on a plan to blow it up.

[RightWhale]

"What a wonderful idea if you could ever make it work,"

The problem with engineers and scientists is that they usually don't include a business plan with their technological wonders. Sometimes they do, of course, but usually not. Anyway, this should be done if only to learn more about nature. Like an amateur radio operator stringing up an even bigger antenna, you don't know what will happen.

[BlazingArizona]

It would take about a week for one to reach geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles up, where a satellite circles the Earth in exactly one day, continuously hovering over the same spot on the Earth's surface.

A lot longer than that if some twirpy kid presses every button on the way up...

[js1138]

I wonder if it wouldn't be wise to anchor this thing to a floating platform rather than to an existing land mass. This would avoid territorial and political disputes that would otherwise be associated with any suitable land along the equator. It would also eliminate the effects of earthquakes, volcanos, etc.

[hosepipe]

How many indian snake charmers would be needed to play the flutes to hold the ribbon up ?...

Liberals if they had any sense they would'nt be liberals...

[Protagoras]

Where are the sky hooks?

[OXENinFLA]

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html

Some really cool graphics of it here.


But I think it's a really BAD IDEA. What would work as a counter balance? I would think this would do some serious damage to our orbit and rotation.

[Brett66]

Thanks for posting this, surprised it wasn't auto-excerpted.

[Prodigal Son]

http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html
October 6, 2003

A bill before the U.S. House of Representatives includes some $2.5 million in research funds to further study the space elevator idea. If authorized, the money would assist in engineering assessments, developing databases, and address other critical issues regarding the concept.

The space elevator is envisioned as a carbon-nanotube ribbon stretching from the Earth into space. If proven practical, the elevator would allow for easy transport of spacecraft, as well as tourists, and at a fraction of the cost of lifting payloads off the Earth today.

"The funding, endorsed by NASA, is for critical engineering on a program that has received very favorable technical reviews. It is part of a visionary space program with economically measurable returns," Brad Edwards, Director of Research at the Institute for Scientific Research (ISR) in Fairmont, West Virginia, told SPACE.com.

Money to move forward on the space elevator notion is being supported by Congressman Alan Mollohan, a Democrat from West Virginia.

"The Space Elevator is a concept that seems like science fiction but one that, successfully developed, would revolutionize access to space. It is an idea with far-reaching implications and it deserves to be seriously explored," Mollohan said.