Space elevator by 2050

[Paulosio]

It may happen 1 day but i'm confident it wont happen within such a short time span (inc people mentioning all the rapid technological advancements of the 20th century).

Wont happen just like that ridiculous Mars 1 thing isn't going to happen in the very short time span they've set themselves.

[Thes]

So whats the point of this? Are we panning to make a giant space station or maybe space colonies by then? Sounds like a giant waste of money other then them saying hey we built a space elevator just to build one. Maybe they have been watching to much Gundam 00?

A lot of things are done just so you can say you've done it.

Wont happen just like that ridiculous Mars 1 thing isn't going to happen in the very short time span they've set themselves.

I don't know how that's going but isn't Mars 1 supposed to be a one way ticked as in good luck and have fun? You can definitely get to Mars already, the problem being the living conditions...

[poser765]

A lot of things are done just so you can say you've done it.

Like that red head 10 years younger than me. Both the best and the worst decision of my life...

[Gheld]

Until we become Star Trek style space Marxists, this is never going to happen.

[Thes]

Like that red head 10 years younger than me. Both the best and the worst decision of my life...

I so waited for this comment.

[poser765]

I so waited for this comment.

Yeah...was pretty obvious.

[Deleted]

Sooooo ummmmm, what exactly are the poor souls that ride this space elevator going to do for the 7 days it takes them to get to the space station? I mean that's alot of time to spend in an elevator lol. It's gonna have to be huge elevator at that, gonna need restrooms, sleeping quarters, a kitchen, some form of entertainment.

Someone already thought of that:

http://youtu.be/h3Yrhv33Zb8

[poser765]

Someone already thought of that:

http://youtu.be/h3Yrhv33Zb8

Linking aerosmith should be against the rules...everywhere.

[Deleted]

Like almost everything humanity has done, before we do it, we need a commercially viable reason to do it.

just imagine, with all those buttons to press---- well that jokes been done already I see. So ill just be the one that drops the stinkiest fart possible and blame everyone else on the ride up

[Aeriedk]

Oh please, maybe if we lived in some fantasy magical land where physics, money and safety was a non-issue. Would I be excited to see this succeed? Yes. Will I hold my breath or come anywhere within 100 miles of said structure? Not a chance.

Think about 45 years ago. A man had never been on the moon. Now we plan on putting a man on mars by 2030. Who is to say that we can't have a space elevator. Technology is amazing. Maybe it won't take 36 years maybe it will take 100 but it still can happen. Think of all the amazing things that have happened in 100 years. I believe in a world where if there is a will there is a way and not an excuse of why we can't.

Oh and by the way in regards of safety going into space was one of the un-safe things we could have done at the time and is still very dangerous, yet we still do it and lets think about a world where we didn't.

[HAcoreRD]

Damnit

I was born in the wrong era. Where's my Virtual Reality games? Flying Cars? VR boy doesn't count!

[Herecius]

Think about 45 years ago. A man had never been on the moon. Now we plan on putting a man on mars by 2030. Who is to say that we can't have a space elevator. Technology is amazing. Maybe it won't take 36 years maybe it will take 100 but it still can happen. Think of all the amazing things that have happened in 100 years. I believe in a world where if there is a will there is a way and not an excuse of why we can't.

Oh and by the way in regards of safety going into space was one of the un-safe things we could have done at the time and is still very dangerous, yet we still do it and lets think about a world where we didn't.

It's a nice sentiment, but this is still much less about humanity doing fantastical space things and more about the feasibility of the largest mega-engineering project ever conceived. Going to Mars is a hell of a lot simpler than this monstrosity.

[Deleted]

So whats the point of this? Are we panning to make a giant space station or maybe space colonies by then? Sounds like a giant waste of money other then them saying hey we built a space elevator just to build one. Maybe they have been watching to much Gundam 00?

once built a space elevator would make boosting things to orbit incredibly cheap, and returning cargo down again.

It woudl also remove any heat output to the atmosphere from the equivalent number of traditional chemical rocket launches, and associated pollution from fuels.


Whether we need it or not is questionable. but if that level of orbital traffic is someday necessary, a space elevator would be preferable to traditional launch vehicles.

Of course, the fact that every non-geosync satelite would eventually crash into it unless manually diverted may be an issue

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You can also use it as a launch system for extraterrestrial craft. detaching above geostationary orbit level would mean the climber had escape velocity. Detaching at different heights above that has different resulting trajectories.

[IIamaKing]

Exciting indeed, we need this atm in order for us to stage further exploration.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Won't happen War is coming soon space elevators will be the last thing on people's minds.

[lizon]

The thing is a Space Elevator just isn't very practical for Earth. Our gravity well is too large. It would also take forever to lift cargo to the anchor point. We are talking about a distance of 22000 miles (35400 km). The fastest train on earth currently is a MAGLEV which has a maximum velocity of 430 kmh. That's approximately 82 hours or about 3 and a half days.

How does that compared with current technology? Well the fastest maneuver takes about 5.5 hours. Granted this is a very expensive route to take. If we use a much more cost effective SSTO maneuver it takes about 2 weeks.

What about going back down?

Nothing beats just dropping it into the atmosphere with a heat shield attached. It's cheaper and faster than taking your cargo to a docking station and waiting over 3 days for it to arrive.

But it uses less energy!

Not really, the amount of energy needed to launch something using an electromagnetic rail system would likely be greater than simply attaching a rocket engine to whatever you need to put up and letting it fly.

Now a space elevator for someplace like Mars or Luna is much more practical. Their gravity wells are much smaller and launching something would be much more cost effective. Earth is just too massive given current tech.

Now an electromagnetic rail launch system would be much more viable for Earth. It's cheap, cost effective, and relatively safe if you control the rate of acceleration. To launch humans into space you would need a track roughly 160-200 km long. We could reduce this if we use some kind of liquid compression suit or chamber. That would allow for a much shorter track due to higher acceleration.

[poser765]

The thing is a Space Elevator just isn't very practical for Earth. Our gravity well is too large. It would also take forever to lift cargo to the anchor point. We are talking about a distance of 22000 miles (35400 km). The fastest train on earth currently is a MAGLEV which has a maximum velocity of 430 kmh. That's approximately 82 hours or about 3 and a half days.

How does that compared with current technology? Well the fastest maneuver takes about 5.5 hours. Granted this is a very expensive route to take. If we use a much more cost effective SSTO maneuver it takes about 2 weeks.

What about going back down?

Nothing beats just dropping it into the atmosphere with a heat shield attached. It's cheaper and faster than taking your cargo to a docking station and waiting over 3 days for it to arrive.

But it uses less energy!

Not really, the amount of energy needed to launch something using an electromagnetic rail system would likely be greater than simply attaching a rocket engine to whatever you need to put up and letting it fly.

Now a space elevator for someplace like Mars or Luna is much more practical. Their gravity wells are much smaller and launching something would be much more cost
effective. Earth is just too massive given current tech.

Now an electromagnetic rail launch system would be much more viable for Earth. It's cheap, cost effective, and relatively safe if you control the rate of acceleration. To launch humans into space you would need a track roughly 160-200 km long. We could reduce this if we use some kind of liquid compression suit or chamber. That would allow for a much shorter track due to higher acceleration.

The elevator doesn't have to leave the gravity well for it to make sense...just the atmosphere. So the station at the top...doesn't have to be at the top...IE all the way out to the counter weight.

And what maneuver? Are you talking about a maneuver to get us into orbit? How does an ssto take 2 weeks to get into orbit? Also even with an ssto you are still incredibly weight restricted and heavily dependent on carrying a HUGE mass of fuel.

Ths space shuttle assembled for launch was a massive vehicle. Only a small percentage of that mass was payload. The rest was just getting that damn small payload into space. Sure an elevator may take longer, but time is not really that big of a deal when you can go from lifting thousands of pounds to being able to lift tens of thousands of pounds.

[Keyboard Champion]

The most technologically advanced nation on the planet?

Japan ?
/10 things

[Deleted]

Japan ?
/10 things

Shots fired.

[nguyenthanhson9899]

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