More progress is being made on it, it’s getting closer. We could actually build one in the next decade or so if we wanted to.
It’ll be a cheap way to get into space and get hardware up & down from there as well.
Huge balloons might be cheaper and doable for the moment
A space elevator would certainly be useful
How you’d guard against terrorist attack I don’t know, it would become a prime target for anyone wanting to make a “ statement”
wookiemeister said:
Huge balloons might be cheaper and doable for the momentA space elevator would certainly be useful
How you’d guard against terrorist attack I don’t know, it would become a prime target for anyone wanting to make a “ statement”
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
Huge balloons might be cheaper and doable for the momentA space elevator would certainly be useful
How you’d guard against terrorist attack I don’t know, it would become a prime target for anyone wanting to make a “ statement”
Build it so that if it fell its impact zone would be Mecca & Medina.
In “ contact” it’s an extremist religious group – not Islamic
wookiemeister said:
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
Huge balloons might be cheaper and doable for the momentA space elevator would certainly be useful
How you’d guard against terrorist attack I don’t know, it would become a prime target for anyone wanting to make a “ statement”
Build it so that if it fell its impact zone would be Mecca & Medina.
It could be anyone that’s the thingIn “ contact” it’s an extremist religious group – not Islamic
wookiemeister said:
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
Huge balloons might be cheaper and doable for the momentA space elevator would certainly be useful
How you’d guard against terrorist attack I don’t know, it would become a prime target for anyone wanting to make a “ statement”
Build it so that if it fell its impact zone would be Mecca & Medina.
It could be anyone that’s the thingIn “ contact” it’s an extremist religious group – not Islamic
A ladder, a really long one, 360+km one, and then wave a flag when you get to the top
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
Tamb said:Build it so that if it fell its impact zone would be Mecca & Medina.
It could be anyone that’s the thingIn “ contact” it’s an extremist religious group – not Islamic
They’re the only ones with the capability of knocking down something as big as that.
Unless of course you built it so the blast would travel outwards not inwards
It’d be nice if we could talk about the science behind it and not about how to destroy it.
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice if we could talk about the science behind it and not about how to destroy it.
Science versus human nature
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice if we could talk about the science behind it and not about how to destroy it.
yeah
I think wind shear would destroy it
How do you install??
Lower a cable down?
The cable would have to be heat resistant , if you were in free fall around the earth the cable would have to resist being dragged through the atmosphere
CrazyNeutrino said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice if we could talk about the science behind it and not about how to destroy it.
yeah
Space Elevator to Mars
Maybe you’d need a virtual elevator where there’s no physical cable if that makes sense
Maybe you could beam power to an aircraft so it doesn’t have to carry much fuel
For the journey in the atmosphere electric motors turn fans ? No fuel required
The “ elevator “ is driven and uses the atmosphere to gain speed and height
Sure there would be drag losses but so what? Electrical power is limitless
wookiemeister said:
I think wind shear would destroy it
Not likely though it’d make it wobble around a bit for sure.
wookiemeister said:
How do you install??
As described in the video, from a geostationary orbit downwards.
wookiemeister said:
Lower a cable down?
Yep.
wookiemeister said:
The cable would have to be heat resistant , if you were in free fall around the earth the cable would have to resist being dragged through the atmosphere
It moves with the Earth so there’s no movement relative to it, the cable only has to contend with regular wind forces. A bit of rain & hail every now and then as well though it’ll be close to the equator so it’s not likely to get hailed upon.
the only problem I can foresee is if someone gets in at the ground floor and pushes all the buttons…
Spiny Norman said:
wookiemeister said:
I think wind shear would destroy itNot likely though it’d make it wobble around a bit for sure.
wookiemeister said:
How do you install??As described in the video, from a geostationary orbit downwards.
wookiemeister said:
Lower a cable down?Yep.
wookiemeister said:
The cable would have to be heat resistant , if you were in free fall around the earth the cable would have to resist being dragged through the atmosphere
It moves with the Earth so there’s no movement relative to it, the cable only has to contend with regular wind forces. A bit of rain & hail every now and then as well though it’ll be close to the equator so it’s not likely to get hailed upon.
the relative speed of the wind, atmosphere might be ok in one direction but what if the wind, atmosphere is travelling at another angle other than in a straight line around the earth?
I’m seriously doubtful it could work
i like my beamed energy elevator
you have a steerable microwave dish
the transport sits initially at some point ahead of it
maybe the electricity flashes a tank of water into steam and superheated steam comes pouring out the back
most of the crafts orbital energy is gained whilst being some reasonable distance form the dish?
the water whilst still being in the atmosphere isn’t lost to space
i suppose you could have an electric motor version? but most of the forward motion would have to be achieved whilst it could capture air and accelerate it , then you’d have problems with shockwaves in the air intake
maybe the electricity flashes a tank of water into steam and superheated steam comes pouring out the back
why not just have a LOX hydrogen rocket?
JudgeMental said:
maybe the electricity flashes a tank of water into steam and superheated steam comes pouring out the backwhy not just have a LOX hydrogen rocket?
water is available cheaply
then you have issues with mixing the LOX and LH
using an electric element to superheat water could be easier
The yellow peril are on to it.
“Once the realm of science fiction, a Japanese company has announced they will have a space elevator up and running by the year 2050.
If successful it would revolutionise space travel and potentially transform the global economy.
The Japanese construction giant Obayashi says they will build a space elevator that will reach 96,000 kilometres into space.
Robotic cars powered by magnetic linear motors will carry people and cargo to a newly-built space station, at a fraction of the cost of rockets. It will take seven days to get there.
The company said the fantasy can now become a reality because of the development of carbon nanotechnology.”
As is Captain Yesterday.
Peak Warming Man said:
The yellow peril are on to it.“Once the realm of science fiction, a Japanese company has announced they will have a space elevator up and running by the year 2050.
If successful it would revolutionise space travel and potentially transform the global economy.
The Japanese construction giant Obayashi says they will build a space elevator that will reach 96,000 kilometres into space.
Robotic cars powered by magnetic linear motors will carry people and cargo to a newly-built space station, at a fraction of the cost of rockets. It will take seven days to get there.
The company said the fantasy can now become a reality because of the development of carbon nanotechnology.”
Being Japanese and how they run their massive military and civilian projects in anime they will have an angry teenage girl in charge.
I did once calculate the difference in weight between a space elevator and a space tower. In a space tower an object in simply lifter to the top. A space tower could be made remarkably light (10 to 100 times the weight of a space elevator) but fabrication techniques required extremely thing braced walls to avoid buckling. The overall cross section ended up resembling the Eiffel tower, but the individual struts were multiwall carbon fibre nanotubes.
IMHO, a necessary pre-requisite for a space elevator is a device for growing long carbon nanotubes. Just last year, the length of carbon nanotubes reached 0.55 metres. Link here. That’s long enough to knit with. The earlier 1-2 cm long ones were not long enough to knit with, and tube-tube bonding is notoriously weak without chemical alteration that in turn weakens the nanotubes.
A question I’ve never seen addressed about the space elevator idea is that of Coriolis forces. A 1kg mass raised from the surface of the earth to 1000km (Obayashi say they want to elevate things 96000km) would experience a lateral force of about 73N over the duration of the trip (unless my BOTE calculations are wrong, but it looks about right.; whatever mass is sent up needs to gain about 73 m.s-1.) How do they compensate for that?
Also, someone earlier said that the cable would be lowered from a geostationary satellite. How? If the satellite is in stable geostationary orbit, it’s in a weightless environment, so anything it extrudes remains in orbit with it.