So I know it's entirely possible, and it will probably be done (though 15 years seems like a bit early), but does anyone else get a serious sense of dread when they picture it?

Quote :

" Earth is constantly spinning. So if you attach a counterweight to it with a cable, and put it far enough away--62,000 miles--the cable will be held taut by the force of the planet's rotation, just as if you spun around while holding a ball on a string. And if you've got a taut cable, you've got the makings of an elevator. As strange as that sounds--push the "Up" button, climb in, and soar off into weightless bliss--don't be surprised if it happens. The space elevator is where the PC was in the 1960s: The theory is solid, the materials exist, and people in garages are starting to tinker with the next step. Two Seattle startups are competing to build the elevator. Both believe they can do it within 15 years at a cost of $10 billion. NASA and China's space agency are eager to help make it happen. And no wonder: A working elevator would reduce the cost of launching anything into space by roughly 98 percent. 98 percent! Biggest discount EVER? So of course the US wants it, China wants it and so does Japan. If and when it does become reality, the country that gets a Space Elevator first will likely have a stranglehold on space commerce for a long time."

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/03/01/8370588/index.htm

3/7/2006 9:02:24 AM

I know I do.

they can't get the elevators right in my office building!

3/7/2006 9:04:28 AM

i can just see the cable snapping and the thing flying off into the depths of space, never slowing down, since there's no friction...

or an asteroid hitting it

or a huge space monster using the cable to tug the earth away to its space cave

3/7/2006 9:08:46 AM

I wouldn't ride in one.

3/7/2006 9:27:00 AM

^yeah, I'd take the stairs

3/7/2006 9:36:57 AM

@$@$@

damnit i wanted to make the stairs joke :-P






[Edited on March 7, 2006 at 9:43 AM. Reason : eitherway i'd ride it. probably safer than driving]

3/7/2006 9:37:01 AM

lol, yeah I beat you by like 3 seconds.

3/7/2006 9:56:47 AM

i'm riding the space escalator.

and then running down the up one.

[Edited on March 7, 2006 at 9:57 AM. Reason : *]

3/7/2006 9:57:20 AM

62,000 miles is a long fucking elevator ride.


Even at 100mph, it'd take more than 3 weeks.

3/7/2006 10:06:00 AM

yeah, but if you went 200 mph, it'd only take, like, half that long

3/7/2006 10:09:12 AM

^^is it really 62,000 miles to earth orbit? sounds too high

oh yeah and Jetsons did it.. kind of

3/7/2006 10:13:40 AM

Quote :

"put it far enough away--62,000 miles--the cable will be held taut by the force of the planet's rotation"

3/7/2006 10:21:33 AM

the next turrurist attack!

3/7/2006 10:33:23 AM

Quote :

"The cable, known to elevator scientists as a ribbon, would be dropped in stages from space and hooked up to a floating platform similar to an offshore oil rig. An elevator car roughly the size of a Boeing 747, able to carry hundreds of people or 200 tons of cargo, could climb and descend the ribbon at a speed of 120 mph. That means the first trip to geosynchronous orbit (22,000 miles) would take seven days, but scientists say that could be reduced to four days by the time the first passengers make the journey. (Still, bring a good book for when the view of Earth gets dull.)"

3/7/2006 11:08:50 AM

I've also heard it mentioned that having a cable like that out in space would actually create energy that could be stored... like lots of energy.

3/7/2006 11:17:31 AM

this is the coolest thing i've heard in a while,
because of the simplicity of it, it's gotta work

3/7/2006 12:42:22 PM

What happens when like...there's an earthquake or something.

3/7/2006 12:51:56 PM

what happens when somebody trips on the cable?

3/7/2006 12:54:11 PM

^the earth falls over?

3/7/2006 1:07:15 PM

Cool idea.


And yeah, I heard that this could generate energy, but how?


Also, that would have to be some SERIOUS fucking cable.

3/7/2006 1:21:54 PM

what like 10lb test?

3/7/2006 1:27:13 PM

is this a cable or a tube that the elevator goes through?

3/7/2006 1:30:07 PM

OMFG

SNAKES IN A SPACE ELEVATOR

SOMEONE CALL SAMUEL L. JACKSON!

3/7/2006 1:43:35 PM

OSHIT THE CABLE IS ACTUALLY MADE OF SNAKES!


THEM MOTHERFUCKERS ARE LONG!

3/7/2006 1:46:23 PM

Quote :

"i can just see the cable snapping and the thing flying off into the depths of space, never slowing down, since there's no friction..."

depends on where it breaks but yeah, the other end attached to earth would then fall, wrapping itself around the planet a few times.... causing much destruction ect ect.

3/7/2006 1:55:33 PM

How big is this elevator going to be? It would need to have food and water and restrooms too for such a long trip.

3/7/2006 4:11:54 PM

Quote :

"is this a cable or a tube that the elevator goes through?"

It is a "ribbon". They've been talking about this for several years - back in the late 90's, I remember reading that this would not be able to be done before the end of the 21st century. I guess they've increased the speed of innovation here.

Anyway - if you read the article or any of the countless others you'll find in a search for "space elevator", you'll see it's a ribbon made of carbon nanotubes, a material (or structure of carbon atoms) created in the early 90s that is the strongest, most tensile material ever created. A sheet of nanotubes, as the article says, as thin as plastic wrap, or fractions of a millimeter thick, and about a meter wide (from articles I've read previously) could support about 20 tons.

Quote :

"is this a cable or a tube that the elevator goes through?"

as described above, it's simply a ribbon. Then you attach a car of sorts to it that crawls up the ribbon with support of a laser station on the ground. The CNN article says you could put a car as big as a 747 on the ribbon, so yeah, you'll have plenty of space to lounge, eat, go to the bathroom, etc.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-elevator.htm
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html
http://www.spaceelevator.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

3/7/2006 4:33:16 PM

earth will lose its balance and spin out of orbit!!

3/7/2006 4:48:17 PM

we should just tie the other end to the moon.

3/7/2006 4:49:40 PM

someone explain to me why we really need this, other than the cost factor.

not being sarcastic, just curious.

[Edited on March 7, 2006 at 7:22 PM. Reason : ]

3/7/2006 7:21:52 PM

Energy.


So rich people can have parties in space.


and

uh

To show people how fucking cool we are.

3/7/2006 7:22:43 PM

sweet!

i'll be middle aged by then, so old men in corvettes on the moon!

COME ON! BRING YOUR GREEN HAT!

3/7/2006 7:41:24 PM

this scares me just a tad, i just saw the Core last night and they had to shoot nuclear weapons into the earth core to get it to spin right,
i hope this thing doest start cause spin problems, especially if they decide to put up like 50 of them.

3/7/2006 7:41:53 PM

I'm sure that idea is/has been in the NASA GeekTank since the idea's inception.

3/7/2006 7:46:22 PM

Quote :

"someone explain to me why we really need this, other than the cost factor. "

The cost factor alone justifies it. Furthermore, if it helps to advance our carbon nano tube manufacturing capability, that will help us immensely.

Never forget that scientific advance = economic growth.

3/7/2006 7:58:15 PM

i'm glad agentlion posted that...i remember reading about the same thing, but couldn't remember where i'd seen/read it

3/7/2006 9:07:57 PM

it's cheaper in the long run to shove a satelite in an elevator to deploy it than it is to stick it on top of a large stick of explosives and wait for the best

plus, science and stuff

3/8/2006 12:36:47 AM

this will be an eyesore. they'd better do it in africa or something

3/8/2006 11:25:45 AM

They'd better do it in the middle of the fucking ocean.

3/8/2006 11:32:56 AM

it will be on the equator, and probably on a large artificial platform in the ocean.
It won't be an "eyesore" - you won't even be able to see the damn thing. It's a ribbon that's less than a mm thick and a couple feet wide. You won't even be able to see it from more than a couple hundred yards away, assuming you're perpendicular to the wide edge.

And the first platform will be 27,000 miles or something like that in the sky - good luck on seeing that. When was the last time a communications satellite got in the way of your night-sky view?

3/8/2006 11:38:15 AM

3/8/2006 11:40:33 AM

What would happen if a plane flew into the thing?

3/8/2006 11:44:36 AM

dunno, might lose a wing!

3/8/2006 11:45:44 AM

well the impact force of a 737 travelling at 600+ would exert quite a bit more force than 20 tons, and not in the direction of the intended load.

Surely the plane would be fucked, but wouldn't the elevator as well?

3/8/2006 11:50:17 AM

surely we'll have armies of nanorobots up and down the line to quickly repair damages in case of an emergency

3/8/2006 11:54:14 AM

I'm sure we'll protect it just as much as the white house.


All it would take is a few sonar's, a couple jets, and a law or three.



I'm pretty sure we'd be ready to shoot a motherfucker down if they tried to run into it with a plane. It's such an obvious target for terrorism, especially if the US gets it done first.

3/8/2006 11:59:26 AM

GET OFF OUR ELEVATOR!!!

3/8/2006 12:06:34 PM

yea that shit would be protected by unglodly amounts of force.

not to mention they would probably have a no fly zone within a 100 miles of it in every direction.

3/8/2006 12:12:37 PM

it is like 1/16 the diameter of the earth! of course it is going to be an eyesore!

3/8/2006 12:14:24 PM

I think earth has some kind of tumor in that picture.

3/8/2006 12:20:01 PM