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

[mrstickball]

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.