Are Space Elevators the future of our space programs here on Earth? Tell me what you think.
I think you're nuts.
I would go insane from the elevator music long before I reached either end.
There was actually a competition in 'space elevator' prototype development at the X-Prize Cup in Las Cruces, NM, in ~2008. Bunch of college science department teams competed. Interesting concept, but... long way to go.
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Nope, just use the same drugs we used.............oh I thought the topic was about getting spaced, never mind.
The way I see it is that any technological advances that would make a space elevator feasible would probably end up making some other option even more feasible ahead of it.
Express elevator to hell, going down...
I can only suggest one of Arthur Clarke masterpieces, "The Fountains of Paradise", since its main theme is the construction of a Space Elevator. Well, I should probably say that its "main theme" is Man's delusional quest for immortality, but that would be OT
While a space elevator might not be feasable on earth.... On mars, with much less atmosphere, and much less gravity, it might be very, very, very, very feasable.
potentually other planets as well.
Now whadda think about THAT.
Space elevators.......
"LySergicacidDiethylamide"....A foreign project....they shut it down.
I think that those very properties that make a space elevator more feasible to build (less atmosphere, less gravity, etc), would make other options equally more feasible.
well.. just wait for the 1st elevator that loses its cable. happens frequent enough in real life mundane ones...
The problem with space elevators isn't so much weight since the physics of centrifrugal forces will keep the destination up in orbit.
I believe the main fear is that the cable is gonna snap on you somehow. But if materials technology advances far enough it might be very feasible.
So... "Lost in Space" would become "Lost in Elevator"?
Just being facetious. Seriously, the idea has appeared in SF stories... but I'd side with Rosco_P...
A reverse magnetic polar space elevator would work (no cables).
But any space elevator using carbon nano tubes would be too dangerous, if the cable fell back to earth, too many would be killed.
A reverse magnetic polar space elevator uses the polar magnetic force to over come gravity but it can only be build directly over the magnetic south pole, so that adds a lot of issues in itself.
I think that is what is called a "ground floor opportunity" if you happen to live on Mars.
I think the laws of physics favor a Space Elevator. If you think about it, it's amazing rocket propulsion can even take us to space in the first place. Newton's Third Law is relying on the rocket's exhaust to propel the rocket. The exhaust doesn't exactly have a lot of mass. Plus it's amazing you can afford to carry on the rocket what amounts to exhaust. It takes fuel, to propel all that fuel.... It's amazing the rocket doesn't spend 100% of its fuel just launching the rest of the fuel to space, let alone the payload. With a space elevator, you could theoretically split it into many separate elevator shafts. The weight of the payload is borne by the truss and the energy source doesn't have to be propelled to space, like rocket fuel does. Thus a space elevator could bear significantly larger payloads than a rocket and it would make much bigger space stations possible. The challenge would be how to find the materials and the structure able to bear absolutely enormous amounts of stress. And what kind of robotics do you invent that can use the partially-constructed elevator itself to build on top of it? You don't get helicopters up in the ionosphere.
All the books I read on building a space elevator, you build it from space down, not from the ground up. You just make very long carbon nano tube, and join many together to make a long rope and slowly drops it to earth as you are making it.
It could be done. It might be a few decades before we have the tech to make this happen.
A study done some years ago by nasa scientists revealed that spider silk has extremely high tensile strength and if made one inch thick is strong enough to stop, dead in its tracks, a 747 commercial airliner traveling at 500 mph. Weave this silk like some composites are at the same thickness and wide by a foot or two and you have a cable that can withstand the stresses. This study was done more than twenty years ago if I'm not mistaken and several advances in composite technology have been made since then. The cost of building a space elevator, at today's inflated prices, IMO is prohibitive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
I'm not worried about the tensile stress on the elevator cable; the elevator can be fractured into pieces. I'm worried about the compression stress on the truss.
Launch Loop is an intriguing space elevator concept that does not need any exotic materials. It could be built with present technology. The downside is, its an active structure.
The elevator doesn't scare me. The Elevader does.
fly to space is much safer than a elevator on this earth since earth keep spining round while moon keep spinning....
This.
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