Space Elevators know much about them?

[talse 0]

well, it's really cool beans. many of the technologies are developing much faster then they were projected and it could begin contrsuction as soon as 5 years from now. imagine being able to lift the space shuttles weigh in goods for less then what it would take to lift a pound on the space shuttle. heres arreally recent article on the stuff.
space elevator article

[Jguy101 0]

Heard 'bout this a few years ago in Popular Mechanics.

 

It's cool, but they'd need Nanotube construction for it to be sturdy enough, and the process for creating them is still very complicated and costly...plus, it's a really big target for some rogue government or terrorists.

[szupie 0]

Yeah, I read about that a long time ago too. I don't know if I'll live to see (or ride? ) it though... It'll cost a lot of money to build it, pull the whole thing in space, and I don't think just 1 country can do it.

[talse 0]

jguy, a few points. if you'd read that article i just posted, you'd know that the tech for making carbon nanotubes has been growing by leaps and bounds. they can make the stuff by the ton now. and pretty hceap too.Terrorism, yeesh, if we're so afraid that what we're gonna make is gonna get busted up by some dorks then they've already won, now havn't they? also, if you have facility in the middle of the ocean, it is quite easy to defened against attackers.szupie, i think the only way you'll not live to see a space elevator is if you die in the next 20 years. the first one will only cost about 5 billion dollars, thetech is already here and jazz and all thats needed is some entrepeneurs. but who ever builds it first owns space.

[szupie 0]

Oh. I'm only in my teens, so I might actually live to see it! Wait till I tell my grand-children! (Wait, that'd be a long time...)

[mdchurchill 0]

A space elevator is a concept that has been in science-fiction for a long time, but is a potential way to give us the ability to travel into space. The concept goes something like this:In space travel, the energy is most needed to leave the Earth, to escape the gravitational well of the Earth. Once one has got into the atmosphere, it is trivial (well, maybe not) to get elsewhere. The idea of a space elevator is to create an 'elevator' into space stations in the atmosphere. This perhaps indeed sounds silly, but the payoff is that the energy to take something up into the spaceshuttle is paid for by the energy of something else (moon rock?) coming down the other side of a pulley system. It is difficult to build, but once built can be used cheaply as its net energy cost is minimal. We can then use this to get tools and equipment into the space stations, where we can build our space ship.There are lots of technical difficulties to overcome, e.g. what materials to use, the base of the elevator having to be huge etc, but we are on our way to overcoming these as technology moves forward. It could be the first move into space...