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Forums - General Discussion - Japanese company announces plans to build a 20,000 mile high space elevator by 2050

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drkohler on 27 February 2012
Acevil said:
mrstickball said:
Hope it works out. The country 1st to get the elevator will dominate the next century in economics


The counterweight problem needs to be solved. 

No that's the easy part. The "rope" would simply extend much further than geostationary orbit. The problem is the stability of the "rope". Even the best steel "ropes" would break if longer than a few miles. Carbon nanotubes are much more stable than steel and would fit the bill, unfortunately they oxidise and can't withstand the temperature ranges (also noone can make stable nanotubes longer than a few meters). Graphen is the latest "hot item" discussed for such a project (an idea which has been floating around for over 100 years. I think Arthur C. Clarke wrote a novel about such an idea).



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Acevil on 27 February 2012
drkohler said:
Acevil said:
mrstickball said:
Hope it works out. The country 1st to get the elevator will dominate the next century in economics


The counterweight problem needs to be solved. 

No that's the easy part. The "rope" would simply extend much further than geostationary orbit. The problem is the stability of the "rope". Even the best steel "ropes" would break if longer than a few miles. Carbon nanotubes are much more stable than steel and would fit the bill, unfortunately they oxidise and can't withstand the temperature ranges (also noone can make stable nanotubes longer than a few meters). Graphen is the latest "hot item" discussed for such a project (an idea which has been floating around for over 100 years. I think Arthur C. Clarke wrote a novel about such an idea).

I thought the basic structure would need a strong enough counterweight, and after that it would need the next step. Given I am assuming step by step process. My knowledge of Space Elevator is very dated. Given I thought mrstickball was correct on showcasing a simple solution. 



 

mrstickball on 27 February 2012
usrevenge said:
mrstickball said:
Hope it works out. The country 1st to get the elevator will dominate the next century in economics.


nah, i would give that to the first fusion reactor.
unlimmited clean energy? yes please, a space elevator is nothing unless there is commerce in space, which there isn't much of if any atm.


anyways
2050 seems like a pretty long ways away at the rate technology increases i would expect it sooner.


The reason there isn't as much commerce in space is.........gasp...........THE COST!

The savings to deploy material to and from in space due to an elevator would be revolutionary. We're talking about reducing costs by a factor well above 10. If that happens, then the cost to go to the moon would be in the low millions, not the high billions. You don't think that'd create commerce? SpaceX has reduced the cost of space deployments by 66% and they already have orders booked through the next decade.



Back from the dead, I'm afraid.

sethnintendo on 27 February 2012
TWRoO said:
radishhead said:
This has to be early april fools, surely? That is impossible

Whether it will be managed in 38 years or not I don't know (doubtfull IMO) but as a concept it is feasable... Satellites in geostationary orbit remain above the same point in the Earth, in basic terms this is just attaching a cable between the two.

God knows what they will do about all the shit that's up there already though, all the satellites in geosynchronous orbit will be passing by the "cable"... I guess the active satellites can be programmed to boost around it, but there will surely be a bunch of dead satellites, maybe some that don't have propulsion, and still other junk from various space missions or even small bits of rock or from near miss asteroids. 

That is when Ronald Reagan will necro from the grave and release the fury of the Star Wars program to help protect the elevator against space junk.



sethnintendo on 27 February 2012
drkohler said:
Acevil said:
mrstickball said:
Hope it works out. The country 1st to get the elevator will dominate the next century in economics


The counterweight problem needs to be solved. 

No that's the easy part. The "rope" would simply extend much further than geostationary orbit. The problem is the stability of the "rope". Even the best steel "ropes" would break if longer than a few miles. Carbon nanotubes are much more stable than steel and would fit the bill, unfortunately they oxidise and can't withstand the temperature ranges (also noone can make stable nanotubes longer than a few meters). Graphen is the latest "hot item" discussed for such a project (an idea which has been floating around for over 100 years. I think Arthur C. Clarke wrote a novel about such an idea).

Sounds like they need to use nano hemp rope.



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Lafiel on 27 February 2012
sethnintendo said:
drkohler said:
Acevil said:
mrstickball said:
Hope it works out. The country 1st to get the elevator will dominate the next century in economics


The counterweight problem needs to be solved. 

No that's the easy part. The "rope" would simply extend much further than geostationary orbit. The problem is the stability of the "rope". Even the best steel "ropes" would break if longer than a few miles. Carbon nanotubes are much more stable than steel and would fit the bill, unfortunately they oxidise and can't withstand the temperature ranges (also noone can make stable nanotubes longer than a few meters). Graphen is the latest "hot item" discussed for such a project (an idea which has been floating around for over 100 years. I think Arthur C. Clarke wrote a novel about such an idea).

Sounds like they need to use nano hemp rope.

In the article I read they said they wanted to use carbon nanotubes,



sethnintendo on 27 February 2012
Lafiel said:
sethnintendo said:

Sounds like they need to use nano hemp rope.

In the article I read they said they wanted to use carbon nanotubes,

I was just bsing around.  I was just throwing that out there because hemp is the strongest natural fiber.  The key word there being natural.  It was mainly as diss at USA outlawing hemp but done in such a vague way that only I really knew of the real intentions.



VGKing on 27 February 2012

COOL!
I wanna ride!



bobgamez on 27 February 2012

so....would if it falls over?

and where is that damn underwater tokyo bay city Japan promised?



justinian on 27 February 2012

2050?? There's so much that can happen between now and then.

An earthquake can flatten Japan, a meteor could strike the earth, I could be become the undisputed ruler of earth....

Good luck to Japan, that's what progress is about, doing shit other people claim can't be done.

As for the benefits of such a operation, one hopes they have already analyse this and know it can be profitable, even if some people don't see how.