Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

bofh31337 writes "Scientist Bradley C. Edwards, head of the space elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research, thinks an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space could be operating in 15 years. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors. 'It's not new physics--nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch,' he says. 'If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up.' NASA already has given more than $500,000 to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more."

Amazingly

[Anonymous Coward]

He saw the space elevator by looking through a wormhole at a mirror 7.5 years from Earth.

no god this can be appening!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who would stand Muzak for a 45 min ride.....

15 years?

[bugnuts]

that'll be the wait after pressing the UP button.

Imagine the jerk that presses the "close door" button as you're running.

Working elevators on Earth

[macrom]

You know, it's cool that "they" are going to spend billions on an elevator to space, but I think it would be cooler if they could keep all 4 elevators in my building working correctly. Nothing like getting stuck, or seeing the Schindler repairman come out twice a week. Maybe he could make good use of some research funds!

Some cautions

[shawkin]

This is a high performance, high stress ribbon
This application has little room for error. Obviously.

Wear on carbon nanotube ribbons may be significant.
Carbon nanotube ribbons may be susceptible to significant deterioration from cosmic rays.
Micrometeor impacts may also be a problem.

If the ribbon fails, what do we do with 62,000 miles of ribbon?
Oh wait, we build a Beowulf cluster of Christmas wrapping stores.

And then there is the cost estimate.
Low.

As long as it's not an OTIS

[mr_don't]

Yeah, i wonder if it will have one of those burgundy phones for when it gets stuck...

Re:A space elevator will not happen in 15 years...

[Neil Blender]

Maybe you should take him on at longbets.org.

In Space...

[Zorilla]

...Nobody but you can hear the elevator music

And consequently, nobody can hear you scream.

However

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it have Celine Dion elevator music? If so, fuck it.

Re:We've spent money for worse...

[dilettante]

Yeah, but the problem is that the reds will just blow the darn thing up and it'll wrap itself around the planet a couple of times killing everything in its path. Oh, no, wait, that's on Mars. Never mind.

Ob. RD

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to Xpress Lifts, descent to floor sixteen. You will be going down two thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven floors and, for a small extra charge, you can enjoy the in-lift movie "Gone With the Wind." If you look to your right and to your left, you will notice there are no exits. In the highly unlikely event of the lift having to make a crash-landing, death is certain. Under your seats you will find a cassette for recording your last-minute testament, and from above your head a bag will drop containing sedatives and cyanide capsules.

one pitfall they didn't mention

[Anonymous Coward]

So I was on the Space Elevator last month, and 10 minutes into the ride a guy sitting next to me ripped one! "Sorry," he says, "I had spicy enchiladas for dinner last night." Longest trip of my life.

Yikes

[Tumbleweed]

> At any reasonable speed, you're looking at a 24 to 48 hour trip

That's a _shitload_ of crappy muzak, there! Better bring a fully-loaded iPod.

And hope there's no crazy guy singing 'Roxanne' while you're in there.

Re:15 years?

[Scaba]

Dude, just take the stairs. You kids are sooo lazy today...

Maybe they should also...

[Rinikusu]

Build a roller coaster from space, to the earth... Slow ride up.. then massive whoosh on the way down with plenty of loops and turns and upside-down goodness! Imagine the tourism dollars that could go fund the lowly freight elevator next to it! And we could call it.. The.. Great Space Coaster! And hire a GNU named Gary! Or Richard...

But I digress...

Two birds with one stone

[siliconjunkie]

You could have "love in an elevator" *AND* join the "mile high club" at the same time!

Re:#1 thing not to say about a space elevator cabl

[ari_j]

#2: In emergency, USE STAIRS

Elevator? Hmmph

[bravehamster]

I'll just wait for the Space Escalator, thank you very much.

Just you parents make sure your kids aren't wearing loose jeans on the escalator!

Re:Working elevators on Earth

[kidgenius]

Ah, you must be in the Manzanita dorms @ ASU. All 4 of those elevators are in the top 50 most serviced elevators for the company.

Re:Radiation

[Deanasc]

people would pass though the Van Allen belt for a rather long time

Yeah but then you get to stretch your arms out and watch your girlfriend catch fire.

I am so old school geek!

Re:15 years?

[AndroidCat]

Or worse, that some kids had pressed all the floor buttons.

Re:15 years?

[mangu]

Make the elevator cars disposable.

Or make two, one "up", another "down". I once saw in a factory in Sweden an elevator system like this. It had a lot of one-person wooden cabins that ran non-stop in an endless loop, one side went up, the other down. People joked that, if you missed getting out in the last floor, you'd come down head first as the cabin turned around. Of course, those cabins hung from the cable so that they didn't get inverted at the top, but I never tried to check this.

This whole space elevator business is just nuts

[Anonymous Coward]

We only need to break out our UFOs out of area 51 and quit spending our time on pie in the sky ideas.

Re:How Far?

[mangu]

I think the 62000 miles part must be so the centrifugal force keeps the cable taut.

Nah, it's just another NASA rocket scientist [sic] trying to figure out that unit-conversion software thingie.

Re:Radiation

[Anonymous Cowtard]

Um... Mr. Fantastic's girlfriend went invisible. It was her brother that "caught fire". Unless there was a funky undertone to the story that I never caught about some forbidden male/male mutie love goin' on.

In other news ...

[spectasaurus]

Professor Frinkley, head of the non-gravitational society, has stated that no-gravity suits are only 15 years and $10 billion away. Upon leaving, Dr Frinkley made us pay for his coffee and donut and asked us for $10 billion more.

You just know

[bXTr]

some smartassed little kid's gonna push all the buttons.

Re:Radiation

[scotch]

World's largest water bong.

In other news

[bl8n8r]

Experts are finding drug abuse, particularly crack, is rising in the scientific and technology fields.

only $14k from each slashdotter should do it.

[deathcloset]

that's only $1400 per year for a decade. $116 a month, about $4 a day! if we all just stop eating taco bell one meal a day we can do this! So, who do I make a paypal donation to? who's the leader in carbon nanotube research? I have a big, fat $20 bill with 'C' written all over it! seriously, I do. I wrote it with a marker.

Re:Where's the tower?

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

The arab-looking guy said he only wanted to learn how to pilot the boat, not dock it...

Re:15 years?

[h4rm0ny]

I once saw in a factory in Sweden an elevator system like this.

It's called a patternoster. We had one at a place I worked (UK) and each 'box' held two people. Coming back from lunch one time, I found a queue of 12/13 people waiting to ride up - solution, I stepped into the one that was just disappearing into the ground. Two boxes later, I rise up in front of the still 8/9 people queuing.

I don't know why but it was incredibly funny. I'm probably just childish. :p