Space Elevators - SciFi is becoming RealityNonFi

[Squeak the Rat]

I heard something on National Radio that other day about Space Elevators which was way cool if you're interested in space and exploring etc.

These are structures that go into space so we can lift stuff up and build big spaceships and spacestations etc etc, just like in Space 1999, only a bit later.

The theory goes a little like this: the structure can't be a normal building because it would be too heavy. So it needs to have no weight......

Imagine a ball being swung around on the end of a piece of string. No weight comes down the string, it's all centrifugal forces. Now imagine if the string was realllllly long (about 10,000km), and the ball swung one revolution per day.

Then all you do is get a big laser and a lift with photoelectricthingy cells (like solar panels) to self propel itself skyward and you get payloads to orbit at a fraction of the cost of a shuttle launch and a turnaround of a couple of days.

The theory has been around since the 60's but it's only now that we have the technology. Nasa are running competitions to encourage people and companies to work out the practicalitles and reckon they'll it'll be possible by 2010, ready for 2020.

Believe it or not, all the hard questions have been answered. Check out:
Learn More!
Space Elevator Competition (Nasa)
Oh Wiki you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind...

Diagram Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:S...al_diagram.svg

[Steam]

It is indeed cool, but nobody has come up with a tether material yet, even carbon nanotubes aren't strong enough. But eventually we will be in a position to continue avoiding solving poverty, starvation and war, and focus instead on building this. Hooray technology!

I especially like this from the Wiki article: "Some authors (such as science fiction writers David Gerrold in Jumping off the Planet, Kim Stanley Robinson in Red Mars, and Ben Bova in Mercury) have suggested that such a failure would be catastrophic, with the thousands of kilometers of falling cable creating a swath of meteoric destruction along Earth's surface."

[Squeak the Rat]

Did you take my grumpy pill this morning Steam?

What is the current state of Carbon Nanotube Composites (CNTCs) research?
Yearly production of CNTs is increasing each year by a factor of 10. Single Wall Nanotubes (SWNT), which are the type we want, are becoming available in larger and large quantities. CNTCs are maturing very fast indeed. They are now as strong as the strongest materials available commercially, and there isn't a technological barrier to making them as strong as we need them.

[Blackbird]

Arthur C Clarke was a true visionary. I think it was one of his early books where he first suggested the concept.

[Steam]

Did you take my grumpy pill this morning Steam?

Grrr! Yes. Arrg! I need to develop anger management skills. Commute home not good.
Cool about the CNT development, it looks like a goer then.
I have some interesting pictures of space elevators in fiction, I'll track them down and post them here later tonight.

EDIT: Here they are, be warned if you are on dialup that the file sizes are from left to right 75kb, 131kb, and 300kb.

[jrandom]

Arthur C Clarke was a true visionary. I think it was one of his early books...

'The Fountains of Paradise', I think.

[Pixie]

But eventually we will be in a position to continue avoiding solving poverty, starvation and war, and focus instead on building this. Hooray technology!

poverty, starvation and war...solve this and the fuckers will just overbreed anyway.
kill 'em all I say

[Winston001]

'The Fountains of Paradise', I think.

Yep, based in Sri Lanka which incidentally is where Clarke has lived for many years.

A space elevator has every prospect of becoming a reality. It needs to be based on the equator to minimise coriolis forces. If it was situated in NZ, then the space end would be swinging around trying to trace our path through space - and it ain't a straight line.

Exciting stuff.

[Steam]

Yep, based in Sri Lanka which incidentally is where Clarke has lived for many years..

EDIT: The following is apparently wrong, thanks to Lias for pointing this out. He may be a right-wing loony but he knows his Clarke-related news.


....based in Sri Lanka which incidentally has no laws against men having sex with minors, notably young boys, which is what Clarke did. THe UK justice system couldn't touch him becasue it was legal there at the time apparently.

He invented the idea of geosynchronous satellites too, and if he had patented the idea, they would have had to give him heaps of money for each launched, he'd be a billionaire right now. He didn't think it worth patenting at the time though.

[Steam]

I heard something on National Radio that other day about Space Elevators which was way cool if you're interested in space and exploring etc.

I have edited my post above, to include dem purrty pictures

[Big Dave]

I posted dem purrty pictures above

So in the third pic why did they put it in a hole?
'Hey! I know how to have to make it a bit longer!'

When Arty got stinky it kinda took the gloss off some of the best sci fi ever for me.
'Rendezvous with Rama', 'The City, the Stars',....sigh.

PS - I also find a future without Armco alarming.

[WRT]

Hang on, sounds like this is a one way ticket. Sure, you can fling stuff outwards, but how does it get back to earth?

I'm thinking, that if there is no way for it to come back down, then we are definitely onto a winner here. Imagine it, we could use nuclear power to solve the worlds energy shortage. Finished with the spent radioactive fuel? No problem, stick it in the elevator and eject it into space!

Murderers and rapists filling our jails? Into the elevator!

Dont want a stinky rubbish dump for your cities? Load the rubbish into containers and into the elevator!

Who needs space exploration? We dont need to leave this planet, all we need to do is eject the bits of it we no longer want. Poverty, starvation, war . . . load the poor, the hungry, and the corrupt leaders (Saddam, George, Bainimarama - oh, and Helen) into the elevator and be gone with them.

[Big Dave]

Hang on, sounds like this is a one way ticket. Sure, you can fling stuff outwards, but how does it get back to earth?

With a thud.

[Big Dave]

EDIT: Here they are, be warned if you are on dialup that the file sizes are from left to right 75kb, 131kb, and 300kb.

It could be worse - you could be on Ihug.
Do people still do dial up?

[Blackbird]

[QUOTE=Big Dave;859520]
'Rendezvous with Rama', 'The City, the Stars',....sigh.QUOTE]
Clarke is one of the few authors with the ability to make the hairs on my neck stand up with his phraseology. The Rama series painted an incredibly clear visual picture. One of his early books, Childhood's End, is a personal favourite and his explanation of why the Devil's classic horns, forked tail and wings entered mythology is an absolute beaut.