Going Up? 567
jmiyaku writes "The National Post is reporting that NASA has given a Seattle company a $570,000 grant to continue its investigation into constructing a space elevator. Coupled with some production-grade technology from a Japanese car company (carbon nanotube composites), this elevator could be a reality within 15 years..." The Highlift website has some more information.
Guess who can't wait for this!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Going up? (Score:3, Funny)
Sheesh.. (Score:2, Funny)
Location, location, location (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Good idea for nuclear waste? (Score:2, Funny)
Also a good idea for getting rid of those annoying polititions/celebs etc.
I think the sun was used for this in a Simpsons episode somewhere?!
beam me up (Score:2, Funny)
"Scotty one to beam up."
"I'm doing the best I can captain but the elevator is stuck on floor 3."
Re:Cool (Score:5, Funny)
Illinois, Ohio, and Toronto have found that the best place to stash garbage is in Michigan! They only charge $10 to $20 a ton to dump there (but up to $65 a ton elsewhere). You can't honestly tell me that transporting all the garbage to the middle of the Pacific ocean and launching it into space is actually cheaper than that.
Yearly, out of state garbage dumped in Michigan alone totals almost 10 million tons. This elevator will only lift 250 tons per year. I don't think that launching garbage or nuclear waste into space is very feasible.
Re:wow... (Score:2, Funny)
My favourite part of the FAQ (Score:2, Funny)
The elevator can be funded privately, publicly, or with a combination of the two.
In other words "We don't know".
Re:Good idea for nuclear waste? (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, no. There are some waste products that should only be desposed of in this way--whatever the cost. For example: Richard Simmons [richardsimmons.com]
they need to get their costs right (Score:2, Funny)
Just asking for trouble... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good idea for nuclear waste? (Score:4, Funny)
In case you couldnt tell, i was being sarcastic ;-)
Re:Guess who can't wait for this!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, and you can bet some damn kid will push all the buttons on the way up, too.
Re:Impact on the environment (and the ground) (Score:3, Funny)
I got a solution: Use rocket engines. In fact, skip the cable and just use the rocket engines alone! I am sure scientists can find a way to keep them pointed stable enough for flight.
Wait a minute......