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.
Fountains of Paradise (Score:3, Informative)
Fountains of Paradise [amazon.com]
Re:Fountains of Paradise (Score:3, Informative)
Earth was screwed so the only way out was up.
People need to read the FAQ... (Score:5, Informative)
This talks about what will happen if it falls, what terrorists can do to it, etc. It actually seems fairly honestly done, not all marketing-speak.
Re:Good idea for nuclear waste? (Score:5, Informative)
That whole 'spiraling into the sun' thing bugs me.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/
Re:Very Unlikely (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Kim Stanley Robinson: Mars Trilogy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Easy target? (Score:3, Informative)
Why don't you all just read the FAQ ? Let me quote:
For the portion that doesn't burn up in a fall- what effect will it have on the environment?
Honestly, it will make a little bit of a mess. But New York City tickertape parades have made bigger messes. Comparatively it will put much less dust, dirt, debris and chemicals into the environment than wildfires of the American west, any one of the large expendable rockets, or a month of natural meteors hitting Earth. The ribbon is light (7.5 kg/km) so, any pieces that fall to earth will slow down, in the air, to about the same terminal velocity as that of an open newspaper page falling. It will not have enough momentum to cause mechanical damage when it comes down. We have considered other health risks such as inhalation of very small fragments and believe this will not be a problem but we are conducting studies to make sure this isn't a problem. Since we are aware of the possible problems now we can design the elevator to avoid these problems.
Size and Composition (Score:3, Informative)
Virg
The Web Between Worlds (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Impact on the environment (and the ground) (Score:2, Informative)
There is also rotational energy to deal with, but I don't think this will elevate the total energy out of the range you're discussing.
As an aside, in terms of force on impact, the F=dP/dt, or the change in momentum when the cable strikes the surface. This is why the dorce imparted is so much worse than merely the weight of the cable.
Re:Environmental impact (Score:3, Informative)
Space elevator CONFERENCE in Seattle today! (Score:3, Informative)
And yes, ny the way, they had a dinner last night at the Space Needle
Re:Impact on the environment (and the ground) (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Design Problem? Here's the design problem: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't understand these people who think you can build an elevator into space. Can't anybody understand that you cannot just "tie" a cable from Earth to something in orbit in space?
I really hope you're deliberately trolling, but just in case...
The only possibility of maintaining an actual elevator cable is if it is hooked onto something in geosyncronous orbit with the Earth. The only problem there is that the object would have to be 40,000 miles away from the Earth to maintain constant orbit with a fixed position on Earth. Good luck.
Err, yes? Thats exactly what people are proposing, in fact people have been proposing this for many years. See this NASA Summary [nasa.gov] for details for the current ideas. You'll notice that they specifically say that the elevator will be to geo-stationary Earth orbit (GEO) in the first sentence.
Al.Many poorly dodged questions there. (Score:3, Informative)
If I remember correctly, the reason they don't want to deal with the lightning question is because running a huge electrical charge through a carbon nanotube will make it explode into a cloud of graphite, severing the connection.
So, the question becomes, what do they plan on doing when (not if) bad weather comes for the orbital elevator. Can it be moved?
Another unanswered question is what they plan to do about space debris.
Re:Optimistic (Score:2, Informative)
If you notice anything else in the project that doesn't quite make sense, rest assured that a wizard will take care of it.
Re:Environmental impact (Score:2, Informative)
How much of an IQ does it take to figure out that there are plenty of people out there who have not read Red Mars and that maybe a spolier warning might have been warranted before posting the above?
I've just started reading the god-damned book and you've already ruined what must surely be a major plot point.
Crap.
GoDaddy croaked, try here (Score:3, Informative)