Space Elevator Climbs at MIT

Space.com ^ | 11/17/04 | Leonard David

[Commander8]

I think that's just amazing that I'll see such an advancement in my lifetime.

[Brett66]

They actually built and tested a cable crawler, very interesting.

LiftPort's scale model of a robot lifter successfully made its way up a tether at MIT's Cecil and Ida Green Building.

Credit: Tom Nugent/LiftPort

[Plutarch]

[Wiz]

I read other news that firms are working to construct these during this century. I just can't imagine something that was science fiction to be reality in a few decades. Thanks to the technology of nanotubes that will contribute to the project.

[Rebelbase]

Looks like a good start. Only 22,235 miles,4,280 feet more to go.

[Plutarch]

You beat me to that image. Here is another graphic:

[Brett66]

I think I read somewhere that they figured out how to make long strands of nanotubes a couple of months ago.

[Walkingfeather]

I know, it is just such an thinking outside the box idea. Who knows if it will work. Amazing to think about.

[Strategerist]

Wow, we made it 10 posts on a space elevator thread without some pants-wetter whining that it would be a terrorist target. Progress, I think.

[SteveMcKing]

I think it's commonly misunderstood to be a tower that stands under its own weight, rather than a tension wire that's pulled up into space. "Tower = target" is stuck in peoples' minds.

[perfect stranger]

Where can I find more on these tests and where can I find these photos related to it?

[John Jamieson]

No need to worry about terrorists; it will never be built, it won't work. Once these MIT students start doing the math, they'll realize that.

John Jamieson MIT XVI (aero/astro) '67, NASA 67-94 retired

[hookman]

Gen 11:4
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

[Brett66]

I think I found the article, University of Kentucky demonstrated a process that made nanofibers 3 miles long.

Space Elevator

[SteveMcKing]

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

It's not a tower. It's a ribbon under tension caused by outward centripetal force.

[Strategerist]

I only survived two years at MIT before I transferred out, so I don't know enough to know it won't work :-)

Thing about terrorism is that I can't think of anything easier to defend from terrorists than some platform out in the Pacific Ocean on the Equator.

[Boiler Plate]

Where does the idea fail?

[narby]

Looks like a good start. Only 22,235 miles,4,280 feet more to go.

And millions of bits of existing satelites to be removed from orbits below, that are statisticly certian to smack the tether at some time or other. Particularly since it doesn't just occupy a single point in an orbit, but is along a 22k+ mile line.

The question is more like, how many times will it be struck per hour.

It'll never be built, materials science improvements notwithstanding. This is just a science boondoggle, just like studying global warming. (come to think of it, I'd rather have them study this, because at least the raw science is constructive instead of destructive)