Long, Stretchy Carbon Nanotubes Could Make Space Elevators Possible

physorg.com ^ | Jan. 23, 2009 | Lisa Zyga

[Free ThinkerNY]

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Cambridge University have developed a light, flexible, and strong type of carbon nanotube material that may bring space elevators closer to reality. Motivated by a $4 million prize from NASA, the scientists found a way to combine multiple separate nanotubes together to form long strands. Until now, carbon nanotubes have been too brittle to be formed into such long pieces.

And a space elevator - if it ever becomes reality - will be quite long. NASA needs about 144,000 miles of nanotube to build one. In theory, a cable would extend 22,000 miles above the Earth to a station, which is the distance at which satellites remain in geostationary orbit. Due to the competing forces of the Earth's gravity and outward centrifugal pull, the elevator station would remain at that distance like a satellite. Then the cable would extend another 40,000 miles into space to a weighted structure for stability. An elevator car would be attached to the nanotube cable and powered into space along the track.

NASA and its partner, the Spaceward Foundation, hope that a space elevator could serve as a cost-effective and relatively clean mode of space transportation. NASA's current shuttle fleet is set to retire in 2010, and the organization doesn't have enough funds to replace it until 2014 at the earliest. To fill the gap, NASA is hiring out shuttles to provide transportation to the International Space Station from private companies.

[tutstar]

GNIP....

[hdbc]

Even if this technology becomes feasible, do you really think the enviro-nazis would sit still for this? The space elevator will never get off the ground.

[valkyry1]

Even if they make carbon nanotubes long enough to build the space elevator, the space elevator will not work IMO

[Daffynition]

I have my Nanobamas

Why should I even care?

[Blue Highway]

The comments on the site with the article are just as interesting as the story itself to hear the theories behind it.

[Dutch Boy]

Whenever I read about a space elevator a picture of Wile E. Coyote enters my mind.

[America2012]

I heard about this technology on Coast to Coast AM. Ian Punnett was hosting that night. The carbon-nanotube technology goes by several names including Graphene and Buckypaper;

Carbon Nanotube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube

Graphene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

Buckypaper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckypaper

Buckypaper is supposed to be 500 times stronger than steel and extremely lightweight. This is probably what's going to be used to build spacecraft in the future as well as planes and cars.

[Star Traveler]

You said — “Even if this technology becomes feasible, do you really think the enviro-nazis would sit still for this? The space elevator will never get off the ground.”

Sure..., a space elevator won’t be nothing compared to one launch, blowing all those hot gases into the atmosphere...

[LiberConservative]

Sliced nanotube is better than pepperoni on a pizza. YUMMMM!

[hdbc]

C’mon, we can't even build a nuclear power plant in this country. Do you really think enviro-nazi groups wouldn't tie this up in court for decades? I'm all for the concept of a space elevator, I just don't think the coming socialist USA will ever be able to get out of it's own way and tackle such a project. Obongo will put the final nail in this country for doing great things such as going to Mars, the Moon etc. We're finished as a superpower, and I don't just mean that militarily.

[Vor Lady]

Some one must have been reading Old Man's War...it never gets explained in the book except to say the technology is borrowed from other sentient species.