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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Space Elevator

We've heard a lot about Space Elevators in the past few years, but this illustration is absolutely disturbing. "Hey, lets tie the Earth to a giant asteroid in space as we hurtle through the cosmos!" Isn't this a little like tying the human race to a tetherball pole--eventually you'll get hit. The article hints at reducing the cost of space travel and all the superpowers clamoring to grab one. Sure, I mean, c'mon, who needs a nuclear device when you can just have a big rock tied to a string that could potentially kill us all. It's basically a killer yo-yo. Space Elevator (Engadget)
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1 Comments:

Blogger Brian Dunbar said...

this illustration is absolutely disturbing.

It's also a) not to scale and b) out of date.

A more realistic depiction can be found at our website here -

http://www.liftport.com/scale.jpg

It's to scale as for length - give or take a few pixels but not width. As well the bit at the distant end isn't correct. While in the image it looks bigger than Texas in reality it's a 100 ton gvw vehicle with sevral hundred expended lifters, parked nose-tail below it.

And no - no world-wrapping. The proposed material will be strong but not that strong.

B. Dunbar
Liftport

3/23/2006 12:07:00 PM  

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