Space Elevator 1 Step Closer
I thought I’d written about the Space Elevator before, but a quick search with the snazzy search box to your right revealed that in fact I haven’t and so here it is.
The space elevator seems like an idea out of a science fiction movie. Put simply its a giant elevator from earth running up to a satellite in space. As crazy as it sounds, a lot of people believe it could work. The technology is based on nanotubes, and they believe that they could create a ribbon cable that could hold a tremendous amount of weight. A runner car will then go up and down on this cable.
Sound unbelievable? They’re hoping to have one operational by 2018. Thats only just over 10 years ago. I think they’re a bit hopeful myself, but even if it takes 30 years, it’s still before I turn 50. And that’s farking cool.
For more information though, and not me rambling about something I find incredibly cool off the top of my head, check out the wikipedia entry on it here.
But why did I start rambling about this today? Because they’ve just pulled off a test run using a large helium baloon and a small robot runner on the cable. The entire experiment went off beautifully. All the info on that is here… damn I can’t wait to hear that elevator music…
Maddy said,
September 28, 2005 at 8:08 am
unless I am in some horrible time warp… 2018 was not “10 years ago”?
Where exactly would this elevator go to anyhow and how long would one have to be standing in it to reach their destination? (Say.. a playground and picnic area on the moon…)
Anonymous said,
September 28, 2005 at 11:57 pm
the elevator needs to be strongest/thickest around 2 thirds of the way up to balance the stress along its length, it would have to be more then seventy kilometers (quite roughl) to reach beyond atmospherical orbit. The wiki article where i presumed you got the picture from has a lot of information of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
I have been facinated with this idea for a long time, particularily because of the way weight shifts as it travels up -suspending itself via orbital forces.
I am definately going up on one in my life time.
That is all.
ugene said,
October 5, 2005 at 10:34 am
insane — there would be a lot of problems with the mass swinging out of sinc with the earth i could see it spinning around many times and eventualy hitting some where in texes .. kinda like spining a yo yo that is tied to your head in an orbit around your neck it would eventualy smack you in the face.
>_
Z said,
October 6, 2005 at 11:23 pm
no dude that can all be factored in. Harder part is building it in the firstplace.