An Elevator Leading All The Way To Space! the title says it all

[kawasu 0]

it doesnt seem unbelievable... although very strange. if they have th idea and are planning to make it, i'm sure they've already asked all the questions in this topic and gone to measures to solve these problems. they're not stupid enought to make an elevator that is unsafe. with the atmosphere thing, this is my idea of the elevator; not just a box that goes up and down, but a tunnel of somesort in which the box goes through to a safe height before and after hitting the atmosphere. i have no idea whether or not that would work but thats how i initially saw this elevator to be when i was told about it.whether it is to be made or not, they will put alot of thought into it. i thik the idea is somwhat cool. it really lightens wat technology is goin to be like in the near future.

[Cerebral Stasis 0]

The problem with that, Kawasu, is that making a metal tunnel that went all the way into space would be an enormously expensive (and heavy) project, so if there ever is an elevator, I wouldn't count on it being in an enclosed shaft (unless the shaft was made of something besides metal).

[Zabb 0]

you people gotta be kidding me!

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[moldboy 0]

I just though of a potential problem mentioned when talking about the glass (or otherwise) tunnel, right it would be very heavy, and therefor very likley could change the center of graviy or axis of rotation of the earth, the cable system might not suffer from this as much but it could still be a big problem

[Florisjuh 0]

Stupid idea, the costs for cnstructing this would be so much higher than if we would be using our current methods.

[Goosestaf 0]

mmmm despite all the justification and sort of research, it still seems far fetched to me.Like has been said, the energy required to haul the weight up and down out of orbit would be emense :STaking in mind this elevator woyuld have to enough force to push past the earth's outter atmosphere.Plus like stated, the force to pull the weight agaisnt the earths atmosphere would be emmense.It's a very nice idea, but i personally think its along way off being realistic.just think though. . . .it that does end up being possible, you could take an elevator to a space station and then down to the moon lol

[schwa 0]

it would be awesome to have something like that, but honestly, I don't think that will happen in our generation. It would take 100's to 1000's of years to accomplish. And the US and the other countries don't have that kind of technology to accomplish that goal.

[iGuest 3]

The best method I heard to build one of these is as follows:1.  Bring an asteroid to Earth and put it in geosynchronous orbit. The asteroid would be carbon rich so you can use the carbon to make the actual cable. Geosynchroous orbit means that the asteroid is orbiting around the Earth at the exact same speed that the Earth rotates. This means that the asteroid would always be above the exact same place on earth. The asteroid also has to be the right distance from the earth's surface. It needs to be far enough away so that the gravity from the earth is counterbalanced by the gravity of everything else. (Or somethign like that)2. Break a chunk of the asteroid off, this will be your counterweight.3. Start building a thin cable that you will lower down to earth. This is your guide wire for the thicker cable to follow later.4. Put the counterweight on a cable and start letting it out of the side of the asteroid facing away from the earth. At the same time you are dropping the guide wire off the side of the asteroid that faces the earth. The weight of the two cables balance each other. The counterweight on the end of the far side cable means that you only have to let the far side cable out a little bit for each length of cable that you drop toward earth.5. The cable that is on the near side and being lowered toward earth will be held up by the weight of the cable and counterweight on the far side. Eventually the cable will be lowered enough to grab it with something from the surface of the earth. What you need to do is start reeling this cable in on a very large drum that is secured to the earth.6. Once you have the thin guide cable attached to both the earth and the asteroid you can start building the real cable the same way. You drop it down to earth the same way. Making sure to let the counterweight out as you drop the thick cable to keep them balanced.7. The weight of the main cable is still being held up by the counterweight. The guide wire is only there to keep the main cable from being blown from side to side by the wind once the main cable is in the atmosphere.8. Eventually you have one end of the main cable down on earth and you plug it into some kind of permanent socket to keep it steady. 9. If you build a power line into the cable you can add lights along the cable to keep airplanes from hitting it. You can put solar panels on your counterweight and asteroid to generate the electricity for the lights. 10. Build rails onto the cable for elevators to run up and down on.  The main cable would be huge so you could probably fit a whole series of rails on it. If you electrify the rail the elevators could run off the power from the rails just like the subway does.

 

[networker 0]

That would be an idea and a half.An elevator to space.I'll make a prediction. One hundred years from nowit will be really inexpensive to visit the moon. No doubt the Toronto transit commission fare willstill be more expensive than that though.

[princeofvegas 0]

Well I think that the very first problem with this is that it would cost wayyyy too much money to build something like this. The amount of resources required for this would be more than we probably have available to spare for any such luxury as an elevator to space.Our tallest buildings to date are engineering marvels. I have no idea how a structure this tall would even support itself. This is truely a question to ponder and wonder if the benefits would outweigh the costs (if it were even possible in the first place).

[iGuest 3]

Not too expensive if your willing to spread the construction out over a long time. Start small, send a robot to start tagging asteroids. When you find ones you like send another type of robot to bring it back.

Start by bringing back metal asteroids and selling the metal to the world. Make enough to start the elevator.

-reply by (G)