What? There are no rules about posting pictures for articles about space elevators?
Oh. Nevermind.
What? There are no rules about posting pictures for articles about space elevators?
Oh. Nevermind.
Where did you find that picture?
Maybe my geography is a little off, but that thing looks like it is stationed in the Carribean. No chance of a hurricane/tornado/tsunami/whatever knocking it down?!
NIce theory, but given wind currents, the torgue of the spinning earth and terrorists wanting to blow it up... it can never happen...
A good ten - fifteen Years ago, Scientific American (I think it was) published an article dealing with "materials science", which in passing mentioned the "Skyhook Method" of reaching orbit without recourse to gigantic, belching reaction-engines. It may even be that Arthur C. Clarke himself originiated this concept, as so many others... in any case, the critical factor in "elevator-ology" is the tensile strength of the "long wire", which in the materials-science community has long been dubbed "fictionite". Whatever its nature --woven, carbon nanotubes, etc.-- physics requires that as of about 1990, "fictionite" must test 100 times stronger than any known material. In aggregate, it may be that we are approaching this baseline; or perhaps the height of the strand(s) has decreased. But "fictionite" as 100X 1990's tensile strength would yet seem a readily comprehensible baseline. The fact that robotic "crawlers could ascend IF "fictionite" were available is beside the point. Gimme "fictionite", or spare the what-if scenarios, however attractive they may be. Awesome rendering, by the way!
Talk about vertigo.
On the other hand, a base jumper's wet dream.