Posted on 09/01/2026 5:02:14 AM PDT by Libloather
On a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston last week, President Trump promised American astronauts would establish a permanent presence on the Moon before pushing forward to Mars.
“Our nation will conquer … this vast frontier that we have before us … We will explore it, we will tame it, and we will win it,” he said of America’s present “golden age” of space exploration.
But researchers thinking of truly big ideas say we’ll never get there with today’s inefficient chemical rocket technology. And they point to an important breakthrough.
“We’re really pushing for permanent infrastructure, like a bridge replacing ferries to cross a river,” Pete Swan, president of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), a nonprofit research and advocacy hub, told The Post.
It’s a simple yet mind-bending concept: an ultra-strong electrified cable running from a point on the ground at Earth’s equator, extended out beyond geostationary orbit (GEO), where a counterweight will float in space keeping it taut. Vessels then climb the cable to deliver goods, people and machines, passing through the atmosphere and into space.
“The beauty is that raising it with electricity saves our atmosphere from pollution, it doesn’t leave any debris along the way and it will be routine, daily, inexpensive, safe. It’s gonna be a bridge to space.”
Crazy as it sounds, the engineering checks out, according to researchers who spoke to The Post.
However, the bottleneck to the space elevator idea has always been the tether material, because it must be scalable, 100 times stronger than steel, exceptionally lightweight and capable of efficient spooling in order to get the whole thing in place.
Next month, the ISEC is set to announce they have their most promising candidate yet—a two-dimensional material called polycrystalline graphene, already widely used in the consumer electronics industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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...would “orbit” at speed a matching...
The tilt does indeed change, over time. But the change is quite slow. The full cycle of this change in tilt is about 41,000 years.
Any space elevator system would change right along with the tilt of the earth.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Whatever happened to that guy?
I recall that he Zotted by The Management.
Hmm. Larry Niven used the term "beanstalk" for this concept in some of his "Known Space" novels'.
It’s interesting, but not germane to the issue of whether it is actually 2D.
It’s isn’t. But is so close as to not matter.
Dead letter.
Can’t be made Muslim-proof.
Yes, there are two long cycles, 29 thousand and 41 thousand years.
Here is the Brave search summarizer reply. (Better summary than me retyping it!)
" The 29,000-year figure refers to the maximum duration of the axial precession cycle (the wobble of Earth's axis), which typically averages 25,700 to 26,000 years. This cycle is driven by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on Earth's equatorial bulge, causing the axis to trace a circle in the sky over time.
Key details regarding this timescale include:
Precession Cycle: The standard period is approximately 25,771 years, though historical averages and combined effects with orbital eccentricity (apsidal precession) have ranged between 20,800 and 29,000 years.
Climate Impact: This wobble determines which hemisphere experiences summer when Earth is closest to the Sun (perihelion), influencing the intensity of seasonal contrasts.
Distinction from Tilt: The axial tilt itself (obliquity) operates on a separate 41,000-year cycle, oscillating between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees, rather than the 29,000-year precession period.
AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts.
Yes, the main objective would be for it to be a private experiment with NO taxpayer dollars involved. personally, I think it sounds a bit HOKEY.
Yes, the main objective would be for it to be a private experiment with NO taxpayer dollars involved. personally, I think it sounds a bit HOKEY.
The Beanstalk.
L
We need to focus on our social situation instead of the tantalizing but false idea that material progress is clockwork in America. It will be hard for people who remember the American heyday, but realism is what it is.
Only a moron would think they could/should live in the new world across the ocean.
Oh, but wait, our ancestors did.
Sorry - false equivalency.
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