Posted on 10/12/2004 7:16:20 PM PDT by KevinDavis
SEATTLE - If the space elevator dream comes true, robo-cars powered by laser light will roll on a carbon-nanotube ribbon stretching up tens of thousands of miles from Earth's surface, carrying cargo and passengers on a monorail to the sky.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
A very feasible project. They've been discussing this for years. Would love to see it happen.
What a wonderful target for our enemies...
will beebers work on it or will they just stun
I read about something like it in a SciFi novel. It was called a "skyhook."
Unbelievable. Billions in tax dollars have been funnelled into 'studies' to help Seattle's traffic woes. And this person thinks that Seattle is going to lead the way into space?
As one who lives here, I can only say LMAO!
What a target that would make for a shoulder fired missle.
Space elevators can only work on a world without insane suicide terrorists.
You definitely don't want to get off on the wrong floor.
You're so right. We'd better stop building ANYTHING. If we build anything, terrorists might target it. We should start wandering around the woods naked hunting and gathering and living in holes in trees....
Nope....the space elevator cannot be built except on the equator. Check out your Robert L. Forward, Arthur C. Clarke (Fountains of Paradise), and Allen Steele.
Yeah, if security for the project is run by an anencephalic chimpanzee.
I believe it has to be on the equator. It will likely be sited in the middle of a fairly vast unihabited hypersecure compound or even on some sort of tethered floating island in the ocean.
If it gets broken, will Janeway send Neelix to fix it?
We cannot live in fear of our enemies, for what they might target. This is why we will continue to build tall buildings, space elevators, and long-span bridges.
As that General in the Battle of the Bulge stated: "Nuts!"
Forgive my ignorance but... wouldn't the fact that the earth rotates make this a little difficult?
How does placing a space elevator on the equator get around the problem of the naturation (wobbling of the axis) of the Earth?
Do not forget Kim Stanley Robinson in his major work, "Red Mars".
I read Red Mars some years ago, re-read it this year. Book is aweful. It does however accurately show what happens when someone isn't happy with a space elevator. They blow it and the frickin cable wraps the plant twice and at the speed the cable comes down, nothing within many miles would survive the cable that wraps the plant a couple times.
Good idea to do, bad idea when you realize nothing humans do is universally approved and someone is willing to kill millions or billions because they don't agree.
Can we first empty the rubbish off of the multi-billion $$ space station?
You mean nutation? The thing to remember is a space elevator is a dynamic structure - you can actually flex the elevator so that it avoids space debris, etc.
Nutation would be almost automatically....since the anchor asteroid is far beyond geosync orbit, the structure is actually getting pulled off the Earth. So, far from a tall, heavy structure, the elevator is really a tall structure of NEGATIVE weight. A wobbling earth will cause the whole structure to sway, true, but the station-keeping engines on the asteroid (left over from construction) will reduce the sway to a tolerable level.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.