Obayashi To Build Space Elevator By 2050

mattr writes "Japan's Obayashi Corp. has announced plans to build a space elevator by 2050. They are famous for wrecking skylines with the over-sized bullet train station in Kyoto, the world's tallest self-supporting tower Tokyo Sky Tree and just recently, the beginnings of the Taipei Dome. It will take a week at 200 kph for your party of 30 to reach the 36,000-km-high terminal station, while the counterweight [swings along at] 96 km high, a quarter of the way to the Moon."

Re:Is that so?

[Cryacin]

Wow. A week in an elevator. Here's hoping you're not in the elevator with "that guy". You know the one. Who eats about a ton of burrito's or whatever causes his usual gastric disturbances.

Re:Is that so?

[r0ball]

Ah yes, the Shitsumi dam. That's near the Notami fault, isn't it?

Kenny G

[lemur3]

if you think "that guy" who ate the burrito is bad..

just wait until you find out that there is only 1 song played over ... and over..

Re:Good luck and I want the 13th ride up

[sincewhen]

You left out the most relevant one:

1. Announce plan for space elevator
2. ???
3. Profit

But I hope they do work out step 2.

Tra-la-la....

[macraig]

Nope, this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1EG-MKy4so [youtube.com]

Tea, Earl Grey, hot.

[Hognoxious]

It'll be a small matter of downloading the plans from an interweb and running the 3D printer overnight. A long weekend at most.

As for the financial aspects, bitcoin will solve all that.

Fire escape stairway

[flyingfsck]

Imagine the fire escape. How long will it take to walk up/down in a space suit?

Re:gotta love the attitude

[aiht]

You mean, gotta love the altitude! Haha! Right? Who's with me?

You will still be alive

[Colin Smith]

if you don't hold your breath.

Anyone know the stock ticker? With management like that it seems like an excellent short target.
 

Re:Kenny G

[Joce640k]

I'm more worried that some idiot will press all the buttons so it stops at every floor.

Re:"Running costs are negligible"

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Vandalism, terrorist or not, and theft are probably the biggest issues.

"The police are looking for the stolen space elevator. All citizens noticing their neighbor trying to hide a suspiciously large elevator in his backyard are requested to report this to their local police station."

Re:Where will they build it?

[ConceptJunkie]

Oh come on, you're making at least some of those names up. I've been as far south as Tuskegee and I've never heard of any of those places.

Re:Bring it on

[dvice_null]

Not if you write it down. I have kept a record of these predictions. None of them came true. E.g. in 2005 it was predicted that by 2006 we should have invented material for space elevator cables... still waiting for that.

None of the predictions I have monitored have come true. Some have changed the schedule, some have completely disappeared. But no worries, soon we have contacted ET, have eternal lives and we drive with flying cars. It is unfortunate that the Internet crashed a few years ago, but at least we don't need to worry about spam.