One more small step towards the space elevator

[Mathilda]

Sorry, can't be bothered to read through all the technical stuff, but I have to say this:
I'm not terribly scared of heights, but just thinking about standing in THAT lift

 

[betazed]

Sorry, can't be bothered to read through all the technical stuff, but I have to say this:
I'm not terribly scared of heights, but just thinking about standing in THAT lift

If its any consolation, it is doubtful that lift will ever have any windows. There is this little problem of radiation.

 

[Mathilda]

Now I'm confused.
What's the point of it then?
I doubt you'd be allowed to open the doors once you was 'up there'.
Maybe I should just read the technical stuff, it was propably explained there

 

[betazed]

What's the point of it then?

Well, the point of it is to first and foremost have a ability to launch and place stuff (any stuff, like satellites, space stations, space crafts that go to other planets etc) in orbit around earth cheaply.

Cheaply is the keyword. Right now we do that with rockets. That costs us anywhere between $1000 - $10000/lb of stuff.

This can do it for $10 a pound.

People can and probably will come a lot later.

 

[Hakim]

The major problem with space elevator is political: people will start asking what-if-questions and find a lot of scary scenarios. Hopefully the times will be different when the day arrives but today the general attitude today is new technology = bad for society. Countries will ask who's gonna pay the bill if someone on the counterweight station accidently presses the "disconnect"-button sending the cable down to earth.

 

[Martacus]

If you're talking about political problems, quite frankly I would be worried about someone trying to blow the thing up. People lately seem to be doing that a lot to things they don't like, especially if they're made by (or simply associated with) people they don't like.

There would have to be more than one, of course, and who is going to be able pay for one, aside from wealthy countries? Access could be a problem.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Apart from Civ IV, there hasn't been much attention about Space Elevators, has there? The idea seems a bit ridiculous to me.

 

[Crezth]

Well, the point of it is to first and foremost have a ability to launch and place stuff (any stuff, like satellites, space stations, space crafts that go to other planets etc) in orbit around earth cheaply.

Cheaply is the keyword. Right now we do that with rockets. That costs us anywhere between $1000 - $10000/lb of stuff.

This can do it for $10 a pound.

People can and probably will come a lot later.

Yeah, plus rockets aren't efficient. They're pretty easy to make and slap onto your shuttle or probe or whatever, but it's a lot of mass and a lot of energy to get a relatively small amount of stuff into space.

This thing is really really cool and I hope something comes of it. The really big problem (hit on in this thread) is that there's no real method for producing carbon nanofibers en masse, let alone in the volume required for a product of this ambition.

I've said so in other threads where it was brought up, but the space elevator at this point is largely theoretical and its application is currently waiting on materials engineers to give us something miraculous to work with.

 

[Ajidica]

Necro!
But seriously, space elevators are cool and it is nice of Civ to keep including it despite its increasing implausibility.

 

[Narz]

Typical lazy Americans. Space stairs would be much cheaper.

 

[MjM]

Really? 8 year necro?

 

[ori]

Moderator Action: deleted advertising spammer post that bumped the thread

 

[Integral]

Entered thread expecting to see betazed.

Thread did not deliver. 0/10.

 

[Winner]

(EDIT: Ah, a necroed thread. Doesn't matter.)

How exactly is this going to work? What is it attached to in space? It looks pretty flimsy. How does it withstand the atmospheric stresses?

To a sort of "counterweight" or "anchor" on the geostationary orbit. The material making the rope of course has to have the tensile strength to deal with the stresses. It's not really clear right know what this material should be.

---

In any case, space elevator is probably impossible to build without having at least some in-space infrastructure first. It's still many decades off I think.

BTW, we could build one on the Moon, and we wouldn't even need exotic materials to do that - a rather simple steel rope would suffice. We could even connect the Lunar poles with a base in one of the Lagrange points, which would make it possible to really turn the Moon into a very efficient refuelling station for deep space missions.

 

[Ayn Rand]

As soon as carbon nanotube ribbons hit the 85 gpa tensile strength range - and are cheap to produce (give or take another 5-10 years max) - we are good to go.

8 years on and we're still no closer [except for that enormous space base down in Antarctica].

 

[Winner]

8 years on and we're still no closer

A rule of making predictions of when a desirable technology might be developed: take your most pessimistic guess and triple it

 

[El_Machinae]

BTW, we could build one on the Moon, and we wouldn't even need exotic materials to do that.

That is Liftport's current goal. But only one country has a real Moon program right now.

8 years on and we're still no closer [except for that enormous space base down in Antarctica].

Yep, "we" are no closer.

There's one country that's producing actual 200 GPa ribbons, though, in a macro scale.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/superstrong-10-20-centimeter-long.html

I guess that's what might happen when people dismantle and ignore science, and spend as much excess capital on luxuries as possible. If we cannot help our countries re-focus, we'll be watching a Chinese Space Elevator change the course of our future history. If we could get the average Civ IV player to help in small ways, we might change momentum.

 

[Winner]

That is Liftport's current goal. But only one country has a real Moon program right now.

I wouldn't call it that yet.

 

[Shaihulud]

We should pile rocks to form a gigantic mountain into space. I don't trust the stuctural strength otherwise.

 

[Benefactor]

I guess that's what might happen when people dismantle and ignore science, and spend as much excess capital on luxuries as possible. If we cannot help our countries re-focus, we'll be watching a Chinese Space Elevator change the course of our future history. If we could get the average Civ IV player to help in small ways, we might change momentum.

Tell me where to send my money and I shall break out the debit card .