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Monday, Nov 16
Will the space elevator rise?
I am surprised that so many people are willing to write this off without even taking the time to look through the Spaceward Foundation site (which addresses many of the concerns expressed here). It is no wonder that this nation is falling behind, with such a stagnant attitude towards new te...
Tuesday, Feb 10
Will the space elevator rise?
ummm.. 62000 miles times a 3 foot wide tether plus the error for a cable that isn't a straight line is... one billion square feet of surface area. Lol. I really want to have a renewal and replacement budget for the 1billion square foot cable that snaps every time a pea strikes it at 25000mph. Especiall...
Friday, Nov 7
Will the space elevator rise?
This is just one more new and better way for a bunch of crackpots to waste huge amounts of money on a silly program that will go nowhere. Remember the flying car? Space travel for the masses? Star wars? Cold fusion? Fusion-produced electricity that would be so cheap it would essentiall...
Wednesday, Oct 8
Will the space elevator rise?
The space elevator is a neat idea. Its defenitly a goal that can be accomplished. If we are willing to invest in it, it will be another big step foward into space.
Saturday, Oct 4
Will the space elevator rise?
Am I the only one considering there is still a trmendous amount thrust required to accelerate the object from zero to 25,000mph once it is out there on the far end of the rope? You can't just lift the thing...you have to add enertia in the direction of earth's spin...that thing is going to need a goo...
Friday, Aug 29
Will the space elevator rise?
Ive always said, "Someday I would like to go to the moon" My wish might come true, huh!!!???
Thursday, Aug 14
Will the space elevator rise?
the last paragraph is frustrating, you get through reading all of this and then you read the base would be in orlando...talk about standing up to the elements, that elevator would have to stand up against 3+ hurricanes a year, let alone space junk!
Tuesday, Jul 29
Will the space elevator rise?
to Bob, Meridian, Mississippi Hey Bob, you might want to check with God on this, but I am pretty sure that the Earth is in space...
Thursday, Jul 24
Will the space elevator rise?
Some of the produced energy was used to pump up condenser water. The effluent either needs to be pumped back down or released at the surface. Release at the surface uses less power and doesn’t heat contaminate your sink. This cools the surface temperature (La Nina) which contributes to dr...
Will the space elevator rise?
A lot of people writing here are concerned about winds at high altitudes and space debris. So why not prove the Space Elevator concept as part of our return trip to the moon? That is, use robots and astronauts to put a space elevator on the moon.
Will the space elevator rise?
Take a small bucket, tie 2 feet of strong cord to it, fill it ½ full with water. Now turn the bucket over. The water spills out because of gravity. Turn it right side up again and fill ½ full of water. Now lift it by the cord. Start turning in circles. The bucket begins to rise as your rate of turn in...
Will the space elevator rise?
Very well done. I’m the one who put up the kite scenario. In a hurricane high winds would be seen up to 12 to 15 miles. They would act against the profile of the ribbon. You indicate it will have quite the profile. WCS is a cat 5 going static with the cable near the eye, maybe 20% out. We now have nom...
Tuesday, Jul 22
Will the space elevator rise?
A space elevator? Maybe "we" can built it --- but why? As other writers have noted, imagine the pollution, congestion and battles for scare resources here on Earth while we spend billions of dollars on an "elevator" to an even more inhospitable environment. As with the race to Mars, it'...
Will the space elevator rise?
Even if the space elevator concept does not work out, does anyone really think that we will not have a reliable means to get into space a few hundred years from now? A slow acceleration that is acceptable to any organism or device, rather than the crushing G's of a rocket blasting off. An hour t...
Will the space elevator rise?
Doesn't every satellite that is not in geosynchronous orbit eventually cross the path of any fixed space elevator? In space elevator versus international space station, who wins?
Will the space elevator rise?
What if it brakes.... What if it is blown up What if it.... this is the job of the desiners to figure out. There not going to build something that that would destroy the world. All you people who say this is science fiction and yet you use science fiction to refute it...
Will the space elevator rise?
If it is anchored to the equator it needs to only be about 2/3 as long. Problem is, equatorial orbits have the greatest odds of a satelite/debris collision. Maybe the whole thing is an excuse to perfect ASAT technology.
Will the space elevator rise?
In a world I thought was so stagnated to ever move on, I am happy to hear people that can see the vision and even those who can’t. Talk about the space elevator, from the believers and non, has done something very important. It has shaken the dust from our minds, show the impossible is not so imp...
Will the space elevator rise?
I want to be the first ever space bellboy. Going up?". Oh man, what a job that'd be.
Will the space elevator rise?
That is why wasting $1B/day in Iraq for 6 years (more than $2,136 Billion so far) is killing our country and our economy. We could have built 213 space tether lifts or educated every kid in America with a PHD or replaced the Shuttle fleet with ones that take off from regular runways or cleaned u...
Will the space elevator rise?
Although the tether concept is viable, there is a faster way to colonize Mars. Send robots to farm for chunks of frozen water in the asteroid belt. When they find a chunk of frozen water, they just push it into an orbit that would cause it to collide with Mars. That could be going on while we work on...
Will the space elevator rise?
The reason for that is for maintainability. Nothing last forever, everything wears and fails. Building the space elevator is something that needs to be fail proof and thus maintainable. It needs to be able to survive severe cable damage - and even the complete severing of an individual ma...
Monday, Jul 21
Will the space elevator rise?
Why would we want to rush to space and colonize new planets? We can´t just run away from our responsability towards Earth. Wake up people!
Will the space elevator rise?
Why should spend more money in global warming; Space elevators will solve some of the issue, rockets become part obsolete which currently pollute immensely the air. After we throw in space one millions rockets you will see what we are talking about.
Will the space elevator rise?
So wait, if humans were able to build a space elevator, and considering all the phenomenal engineering feats involved in putting such a thing into practice, don't you think we'd be able to blow some space junk out of the air with those gigantic lasers? Just asking.
Will the space elevator rise?
I do not have the time to read even the outline of the technology and methodology but all of the above seems to have the carbon nanotube or other material tether be sent to space from the earth through laser beams etc. Surely another method would be to lay the tether from the space downwards by...
Will the space elevator rise?
Student of science - are you saying NASA built and launched the first satellite? If so, you need to go back to school. Secondly, many of those inventions you listed may not have been invented by NASA. They were probably perfected by NASA. So, is it worth it to spend $200 million plus on shutt...
Will the space elevator rise?
A second difference is that the elevator might have no counter weight. Instead the tether would extend to the point where its center of mass is geostationary, meaning that the tether as a whole remains in orbit above a fixed point on the earth.
Will the space elevator rise?
yes I couldn’t agree more with you, and it saddens me that my own country has done so poorly when education is concerned. Also i would like to say to Eddy Glover of Texas, anti-gravity isn’t at all possible at the present. do not know enough about gravity to even think of the idea, it would take an...
Will the space elevator rise?
Planets rotation vs a stationary Space Elevator - Geostationary orbits anyone? That's why it works. If the earth did not rotate you'd have problems... you'd have to use the lagrange points instead like a lunar based space elevator would.
Sunday, Jul 20
Will the space elevator rise?
And for all who think this is a waste of money, think about all the lab work that can only be completed in space. From creating “perfect” medicines because chemical chains or crystals will form more better in zero g’s,to getting vast quantities of energy to give to all mankind or just findi...
Will the space elevator rise?
I'm no expert on the studies associating with space elevators, but let's take a very important perspective into the whole project: Numerous space missions and chemical engineering exploits have proven that such construction of a space elevator, while cumbersome at first, is definit...
Will the space elevator rise?
Have you ever watched the movie Wall-E. Well there is a story behind it. The people who live in space on a big ship are fat and get no exercise. The earth is destroyed by people because they did not take care of it. So they lived in space. We need to take care of the earth so that we can live here for t...
Will the space elevator rise?
First off, virtually no money has been spent on the Space Elevator, yet. This is a big reason why it isn't suspended in the sky right now. Considering the potential benefits, mentioned by others in this blog, I believe we should at least attempt it.
Will the space elevator rise?
Technical problems will always be present; environmental problems will always be present; but space debris is a manageable situation, as are power, anchoring, and pessimistic, and some downright loony critics. Some represented in these emails here, but surely these same spirits op...
Will the space elevator rise?
There is also another thing i would like to say. first of all to all of you who think that this is a work of science fiction rather than fact, remember that sometime in the late 1800's it was declared impossible for a machine to propel itself. by the 1900's we had the automobile.
Will the space elevator rise?
OKay I'm not a science geek or anything, but I think this is stupid. I think aiming for the stars is great and it will surely lead to outstanding leaps in technology, but an elevator????? Too many chances of killing millions of people and wasting billions of dollars. Oh ya and using it to fill sp...
Will the space elevator rise?
Population would be self limiting if we didn't set an outsize value on human life. The recent and current idea that every death is a tragedy is responsible for the population explosion. If you stop cultural groups from obliterating each other for economic and territorial reasons you get ov...
Will the space elevator rise?
Additionally, if we did this now, what would be the benefit? Even if 7B was enough to fund and build successfully the space elevator tomorrow, and assuming that every payload carried is at the maximum stated in this article (60k), it would take over 1 million shipments before a return on i...
Will the space elevator rise?
You can't just stop this thing anywhere along the way since it will not have accelerated in side velocity to sustain an orbit. It has to be risen all the way to geosyncronous orbit before you let go of it, otherwise it would fall back to Earth. Geosyncronous orbit is 22,240 miles above the groun...
Will the space elevator rise?
Any society that does not take space travel seriously now will ultimately either slide through the proverbial gap of our timeframe on this earth or miss it altogether. This kind of thinking is really great!
Will the space elevator rise?
Has anybody ever even thought about using the laser beam itself as the tether. Since we use a laser beam for missle guidance systems. Why not think about that? It may work better that a "nanotube" tether. And to power it with laser sounds good too.
Will the space elevator rise?
As for space debris, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize WE are going to have to address our own mess someday, just as Global Warming is catching up to us now. Of course the longer we wait on both issues the more it will cost us. Trying to play catch-up with the Chinese Space Elevator wil...
Will the space elevator rise?
As for the "space elevator" idea in general: I think it might be feasible in some form or another, though I don't know how probable it'll be. I was lucky enough to watch all of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions as they were happening. It seems to me that we (as a nation) have been dragging...
Will the space elevator rise?
I am a contributor to "Liftport - The Space Elevator: Opening Space to Everyone", and since the book was published in 2006, I have seen a great deal of progress in the basic engineering analyses work on space elevator. The rationale behind this basic work is to drive the development of a lea...
Will the space elevator rise?
Tethers in space? All of these efforts should be global ventures. We need to stop thinking as individual countries and think more as planet earth when conducting space venutures. I keep hearing we need water for life and that we are looking for it all over Mars, the Moon etc. Have any of these sc...
Will the space elevator rise?
Drag on tether versus length of tether = Insignificant Terrorist blow up the space station = Maybe 200 miles of cable comes down to earth (hence the oceanic based attachment points): I think Kim Stanley Robinson was wrong, but it made great science fiction.
Saturday, Jul 19
Will the space elevator rise?
In high winds guy wires snap, buildings fall over. Adding more to the counterweight does make the tether more resistant to wind effects, however, you run into the problem of doubling the girder size to strengthen a bridge. The bridge gets 50% stronger but it weighs twice as much. Just keep...
Will the space elevator rise?
To address a few concerns -- 1) the climber is expected to use a traction drive that grips the ribbon, and the laser provides only electricity to the climber. Purely laser-lift systems probably can't get a craft to GEO, but big laser systems (which a company presenting at this conference s...
Friday, Jul 18
Will the space elevator rise?
There is no way technology is advancing fast enough to have us colonize anything but the moon in the next 30 years. Technology was advancing fast enough in the late 60's and early 70's to have us colonize the moon by the late 70's and perhpas Mars by now. But the decision was made to go with the t...
