Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

Science - AP ^ | 2004-06-25 | CARL HARTMAN

[thackney]

They can't build a space elevator, because it will be ripped apart by the torsional stress from the tidal forces.

What if (i.e. not well thought out) you counter ballance weights by moving equal amount up at the same time as down. Perhaps by mining from the moon or astoriods? Send ore down and machines up?

[Lazamataz]

The science is sound and has been talked about by engineers and technologists for the last couple of decades. Unfortunately, I don't see anything coming from this because of politics (it can't be built in anyone's district).

It would be a terrorist magnet.

Kinda a huge No-Pest Strip.

[drlevy88]

The cable would be about three feet wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but capable of supporting a payload up to 13 tons.

What a kite string does, this will do in spades.

[CyberCowboy777]

Moving supplies and materials more efficiently than cargo shuttle missions. Building and resupplying spacecraft too large to launch from earth.

[Strategerist]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1612826,00.asp

[Zon]

Ain't seen a darn thing made out of carbon nanotubes yet.

Buy some sunscreen, though you won't be able to se the nanotubes unless you have a STM. Buy a bullet proof vest or one of the new military grade Humves with the special ballistic coating.

[Little Ray]

I am having trouble visualizing this.
The lateral velocity of the cab is zero relative to the surface of the Earth, and remains so as it ascends or descends. There is no spinning.
I could see the beanstalk requiring counterweights, but I don't see what your skater has to do with anything.

[drlevy88]

A stick of dynamite on a kite?

[theDentist]

Good point. But I still prefer dropping water balloons from 67K miles... "Look Up!"

[RightWhale]

This is in FR archives. The cable doesn't even have to be anchored at the equator.

[Strategerist]

Well, you've got a single location out in the ocean on the equator off the coast of South America. Pretty easily defensible against terrorists. Can put in a pretty enormous no-sail/no-fly zone that wouldn't negatively impact much of anybody.

[Zon]

Carbon fiber is not carbon nanotube.

So then why do you bring it up? Some car bumpers are being made with nanotubes.

[thackney]

It would be a terrorist magnet.
Kinda a huge No-Pest Strip.

GREAT IDEA!!! Build the most desirable target in the world, AND fully protect it. More like a giant flyswatter in front of the biggest bowl of honey.

[Don Joe]

What if (i.e. not well thought out) you counter ballance weights by moving equal amount up at the same time as down. Perhaps by mining from the moon or astoriods? Send ore down and machines up?

That'll just make it worse. :)

Do some googling on the Roche Limit. The more mass you put at the extremes, the more it'll tear things apart in the middle. It's like being drawn and quartered. You can't compensate for one horse pulling on your leg by adding two horses to your arm. :)

[Old Professer]

It gets worse, I went back in 1984 and in 1985 I bought the Masonic Temple bldg across from the courthouse, I lost all my tenants to either General Hospital or the new office complex that the governor's buddy owned that used to be a clothing store by the bridge over the bowling alley; in the end, I lost the building and $65,000, moved to Martinsburg, worked in the laundry at the V.A. hospital for a year, got stuck with a needle in a laundry bag, quit there while I still had my sanity and moved back to Simi Valley, Ca.

Then came the earthquake in 1994 after I had moved to Canoga Park and my wife's traumatization to any sudden noise or movement and got stuck here in Nashville where time stands so still you jumpstart every day with yesterday's beer.

I got a great sense of direction.

[drlevy88]

And this isn't considering the atmospheric drag on it. Don't we have some pretty brisk winds a few miles up?

[Old Professer]

You know, that's a grand idea; first operate the cab with a storage battery, and use a D.C. motor. When the lowered cab comes down the motor becomes a generator replacing .7-.8 of the current used going up.

[Deguello]

Will we be able to see the glow of the elevator from Texas? Sure would make a nice beacon or "South Star" for orientation.

[RightWhale]

Would the static charge be a problem? It would be cutting some major flux lines.

[Phsstpok]

it also sounds like something out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel.

It IS something out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel: The Fountains of Paradise.

Arthur C. Clarke also came up with a little notion that was equally ridiculed: geostationary satellites.