Space Elevator Going Up

Adlopa writes "The Guardian newspaper reports on scientists' efforts to realise the space elevator, as first described by Arthur C Clarke in his 1979 novel 'Fountains of Paradise'. Advances in materials science mean that 'a cable reaching up as far as 100,000km from the surface of the Earth' is no longer an impossibility and 70 scientists and engineers are discussing the idea at a conference in Santa Fe today."

what i really want to know is...

[knowles420]

will it have a 13th floor?

What what what

[The Silicon Sorceror]

At about a third of the way along the cable - 36,000km from Earth - objects take a year to complete a full orbit.

Uh oh...

Re:So what happens

[Anonymous Coward]

Shredded plane. (strong cable - duh)
And the lowest note ever twanged.

Re:Kind of scary.

[fredrikj]

Imagine the fact that the tip would accelerate as it fell...most of it would end up burning up in the atmosphere.

That's true, the risk of the thing falling down and crushing people is almost zero. But there is another problem: if it burns, will the resulting particles be hazardous for us to inhale? There's research going on about that.

Re:Kind of scary.

[jackb_guppy]

But But But

When a cable under stress breaks it can cut right thought metal...

When this long whip breaks, it will slice right thought the earth!!

Wow

[lateralus]

Thats the longest extension on a CAT-5 I've ever heard of, I'd go with wireless instead.

You'd also have God's wrath to deal with when he trips over it when going to the fridge for a midnight snack.

Insert lame joke here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretend that I posted a lame joke about listening to elevator music for a very long time. Then mod me up as "Funny". Half of the so-called "Funny" posts aren't, so this one will fit in nicely.

Re:Kind of scary.

[csimicah]

It _is_ pretty scary to think about a paper thin ribbon of material falling on your head. It would probably get in your hair and necessitate a shower and a vigorous shampooing.

Re:7 billion USD?

[nagora]

Fuck Iraq

Okay, done. What's the next step?

TWW

The thing that really sucks...

[Mr. Darl McBride]

...about the space elevator is when the kid who launched his satellite just before you mashes every button before getting off.

Omg! Why don't they think of the consequences...

[CharonX]

I can only shudder when I think about the new pick-up lines that arise once it is complete.
"Hey Sweetie, wanna see my Space Elevator"
or
"Guess what is 3 feet long and DOES NOT reach into space"
and
"Let's play Space-elevator; I've got the cable, and you're gonna be the counterweight"
;)

Waterbeds!

[Anonymous Coward]

smooth, I love how you stuck that in there. Invented by Heinlein in '30's IIRC, He was trying to design a better hospital bed. I don't believe he ever actually built one, though.

Going up...

[Foozy]

"3rd floor; stereos, TVs, radios..."
"203rd floor; binoculars, range finders..."
"56,304th floor: parachutes, hang gliders..."
"124,202nd floor; helium baloons, oxygen tanks..."
"973,404th floor; motion sickness pills, glare filters..."

Re:Kind of scary.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Carbon nanotubes are primarily, well, carbon. ... Potentially less toxic than second hand cigarette smoke.

What if it was made of marijuna nanotubes? Imagine a fatty from here to the moon? That would be some serious toking.

With condolences to Tommy Chong. [thedailyjournal.com]

Re:Error in article:

[John Allsup]

Whoops. Sorry. BrainNotWorkingException();
Indeed, the article should be talking about space elevators, not escalators.

Re:Kind of scary.

[Anonymous Coward]

I swear to god, if my eyes roll any harder, they're going to fall out of my head.

Really, considering the near-symmetric encompassment of your sockets around your eyes, and the juicy friction-reducing fluid your eyes are lubricated with, I fail to see how any angular momentum of your eyeballs would result in translational motion away from your head.

Re:Seems like

[Illbay]

In this case you could potentially hang UP above Santa Fe.

Re:What about the static electricity it will gener

[Pharmboy]

Static electricity, by definition, doesn't move, so it's useless.

Not true. You can harness it's awesome powers to make inflated balloons stick to the ceiling, after you rub them on your head. You can generate it by running your feet on the carpet in the winter, and touching your brother, making him leap 3 feet. It makes pulling clothes out of the dryer much easier: Just grab any one piece, and the rest stick to it.

Ok, not the most useful applications, but still fun. :D

Re:Defending a one meter wide cable below 60,000 f

[jerryasher]

Dragons.

I read a documentary about this once. Different colored (gold, bronze, brown, blue, green) dragons shall fly around protecting us from the falling thread. They fly fast, they fly between, and the burn the elevator as it falls.

Pilots of varying genders and ages ride the dragons, communicating with them telepathically.

The close telepathic connections, the sensual relationships between dragon and human are corrupting of course to the rest of society, and eventually all become obsessed with the dragon writers of porn.

Re:what i really want to know is...

[atchertha]

will there be an elevator in the elevator so that people of average human height will be able to reach all of the buttons? seems like there'd be quite a few...

Re:Kind of scary.

[d3faultus3r]

Ah, but what about centrifugal force. If his eyes were rolling very fast the resulting heat from the friction would destroy the eye socket and the eyes would simply roll out, no longer secured to the body.

Re:Seems like

[The Dobber]

70 scientists and engineers are discussing the idea at a conference in Santa Fe today

Translated: 70 geeky guys are prowling about looking for cheap women and booze. And on somebody elses nickle.

Re:Error in article:

[Man of E]

That's because the Sun rotates around the Earth, and it takes a full year to complete the orbit. Wouldn't it be easier to anchor the top of the elevator to the celestial dome and not have to worry about how fast it turns?

That's fine but...

[mog007]

I live on the fourth floor of an apartment complex and it takes about 3 minutes for the elevator to reach ground floor, another 2 for it go up to the fourth floor. It's faster for me to climb the stairs. How long will it take this thing to go up to the ISS?

Re:Um......

[Man of E]

Hoist a chickenfarm to the end of the tether, and you can throw eggs at Mars!

And when we discover life on mars, we'll know the egg came before the chicken.

Re:Idealism...

[betat]

"I personally hope we continue building what Sci Fi writers write about."

I'm just waiting for my light-saber.

Elevator Music

[UnixRevolution]

So even at 100KPH it takes 15 days up or down?

I'd imagine that theme would get old on the way up.

Baaaaaaaa....
Baaadaaaaa....
Baaaaaadaaaaa...
BAAADAAAA BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM

i mean jeez.

Re:1st lift

[cosmo7]

Dude, now the terrorists know about his bed.

Re:harnessing the public interest

[SiliconEntity]

I foresee an enormous tourist interest, to the point that someday several elevators will be sent up exclusively for tourists to use.

Yeah, but imagine the security screening they'll have to go through... Probably make an alien abduction feel like a casual glance....

Re:Insert lame joke here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretend that I posted an insightful comment about the vulnerability of a really expensive space elevator to hijacked 757s being flown into it, but be annoyed that I attached it in a karma-whoring fashion to a standalone post that had been modded +5 Funny. Be on the fence as to whether to mod it Insightful or Off Topic, since many posts modded as one are also the other.

Re:What about the static electricity it will gener

[Zirnike]

"generate static electricity"

Well, we could always use it for propulsion. Make the counterweight a giant shirt and the elevator out of socks and the elevator will shoot right up there.

Re:Kind of scary.

[some guy I know]

This thing is in GeoSynch orbit. It has 0 lateral motion relative to surface and hence 0 motion relative to air that causes friction) it would not burn-up, Right?

Wrong.
While it has 0 lateral motion WRT the surface, it is still in orbit.
As sections of the cable drop lower, their orbital velocity will increase WRT the ground, and the cable will try to "wrap" itself around the planet.
By the time that most of the cable hits thicker atmosphere, it will be going at a pretty good clip, and will burn up (even the light, "fluttery" ribbon sections).

Here is an experiment that you can try in the safety of your own home to verify this:

1. Evacuate all of the air from a room (to prevent stray air currents from skewing the results).
2. Drop a ball from a height of, say, 6-10 ft or so.
3. Note where the ball landed WRT its release point.

You will see that the ball landed several microns East of its release point (and a few microns toward the equator, as well).
A few microns might not sound like much, but multiplied out to 36,000 miles, that's a lot of microns.