Rath on 04 October 2008
| appolose said: I don't know; it seems more likely that more R&D in, just, launching, would be way more cost effective, quicker, and less restrictive than a single massive elevator (of course, there could be more) "At present we have a tether which is made of carbon nanotube, and has one-third or one-quarter of the strength required to make a space elevator. We expect that we will have strong enough cable in the 2020s or 2030s," THAT strong?! A cable that can stretch 60 miles up?! |
Carbon nanotubes are amazing, some of the most interesting and most useful properties of any material recently discovered. Also the thing is that launching will always take more energy than pulling from a tethered spot, if they do succeed in this it will take all the difficulty and expense out of getting into space.
