[lee martell]

I just don’t see NASA making the switch from rockets to Rickshaws. That would absolutely ‘break the internet’ for sure!

[Bullish]

Well, we could sling shot him to space I guess, but he won’t like it.

[American in Israel]

The hard part about star tram is finding an 81 mile tall mountain to build it up the side. Perhaps they could just pile up the BS from this article.

[GraceG]

Electro.... Grativics....

[JustaTech]

Will We Ever Stop Using Rockets to Get to Space?

Yes.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Wasn’t this an actual working system in “Childhood’s End” or a similar Earth to Moon sci-fi novel?

It certainly was in another bad scifi book about spiders coming down to earth through gigantic web tunnels. It was about earth creatures becoming plant creatures due to a changing environment.

[SunkenCiv]

The problem...is that the cable system must be constructed from a material far stronger than anything known.

Nope, the problem with the so-called space elevator is that materials are beside the point. Each point on the Hindooo Rope Trick has a different orbital period, and don't argue with me about it, argue with Kepler. A 22 mile long rope would be a test bed, and within current materials science -- once it is discovered that it can't be deployed, or that once deployed it won't stay that way, some lucky taxpayers will be grateful they didn't pay for the entire boondoggle 1000 times longer. Anyone who votes for a space elevator better feel good about it, because it'll be last time they ever feel good about anything, if I'm alive to see them pull that ****.

[SunkenCiv]

The other two ideas might be feasible, but won't turn out to be all that easy or economical, considering all of humankind's past experience. A balloon-launched suborbital craft (the team was out of Canada I think) was one of the projects in the original X-Prize, and of course, they lost. The idea is to skip the thicker part of the atmosphere and the gravity losses associated with that, and cut a bunch of fuel mass and tanks and such out of the design, to increase the percentage of overall mass budget that relates to payload. It'll still need a chemical booster for the first stage, then a few weeks or (more likely) months for the ion engines to push the vehicle to escape velocity.

[Patriot777]

We likely already have everything in place as far as space travel / recon / intelligence, especially with the announcement that a “Space Force” has been created (probably in existence for a while). With that being said, instead of spending money to go back to the Moon or the ridiculous voyage to Mars, put those enormous funds toward the very best border wall that can be built (South and North) and bolster the National Guard to keep it real.

[SunkenCiv]

Amateur high-powered rocket, with a GoPro aboard, launched in 2011 to 121K feet. Alas for the nitwit Flatearthers, the curvature of the Earth and the black sky shows clearly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvDqoxMUroA

[wastedyears]

I like this thread. Ping for more reading later.

[PilotDave]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(rocket)
Scale this up. Use retired C5 cargo planes. Slide the rockets out the back from 40,000+ feet.

[knarf]

In about an hour after we figure out, and flip the switch to “OFF” .... gravity.

[Fresh Wind]

Why don’t we just use the technology we reverse-engineered from crashed UFOs?

[TruthFactor]

BTTT

[Drumbo]

BM

[FrankR]

How about we build the wall first!?

[Vaquero]

The tube idea is great but not for humans (at least not without a seriouslength of tube). To achieve that speed without imparting too much g forces would require a speed up section of tube like 60-100 miles long. Then once exiting the tube at 18,000 feet at 19,000 mph(their speed number) you would hit a thinning but still substantially cross section of atmosphere to require some serious heat shielding.

It could work. But would require quite a super long lead.

The tube idea as a form of transportation across continents is compelling. Take the same maglev vacuum tube and lay it from NY to LA. Would make jet travel seem very slow.

[trebb]

“To the Moon, Alice! To the Moon!”.......

[COBOL2Java]

The Startram Project: Shoot a Train Into Space

A tube would be built and held in the air using magnetically suspended superconducting cables and high strength structural tethers. To achieve launch velocity the 1,000 mile long tube would be a vacuum and would launch the spacecraft out of the tube at an altitude of 12 miles, the speed it will be going at is 20,000mph - enough to carry it into a low orbit. To stop air from entering the vacuum tube magneto hydrodynamic pumps (MHD) would continuously expel gasses, maintaining a near-vacuum at all times. Basically a mass driver launch into space.