SPACE IS NOT ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILES AWAY.
Besides, it's completely possible, we just need to develop carbon nano-tube technologies to build the support cables.
I say a half trillion dollars and 5-10 years.
Besides, it's completely possible, we just need to develop carbon nano-tube technologies to build the support cables.
I say a half trillion dollars and 5-10 years.
sandorski
No Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
- 70,677
- 6,250
- 126
The Cables/Tubes are going to be the biggest expense. I'm guessing between $1-10billion. I really don't think it will be very expensive, we just haven't perfected the Technology. It is likely the Ships used to get the Cargo at the top of the Elevator will cost more than the Elevator itself. I'm just guessing though, so whatever. 
erikistired
Diamond Member
- Sep 27, 2000
- 9,739
- 0
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I'm no rocket scientist but I'm thinking, isn't it possible to build a space station orbiting earth with a cable long enough to reach the floor of the earth and somehow use that as a means of hauling stuff into space instead of building a tall elevator from the ground up?
erikistired
Diamond Member
- Sep 27, 2000
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Seriously? What's all this crap I've been reading about plans and such that involve actually building one from the ground up?
silverpig
Lifer
- Jul 29, 2001
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I participated in the NASA space elevator challenge, did a ton of research on it, and we built a robot and competed. Here's what I know.
So you can put objects into geosynchronous orbit. There are a lot of satellites in this orbit. The orbital period of something at geosync is 1 day so the satellite sits above a single spot on the earth's surface.
If you extend a cable down towards earth, and a balancing mass out into space, the center of mass of the cable is still at geosync so it orbits the earth once per day. If you make it rotate once per day as well, then the "low" end of the cable will stay on/near the earth's surface. This end of the cable doesn't support any weight so it can be arbitrarily thin. The strongest forces are at the center of mass, and this is where your cable needs its strength. Calculations have been done for a steel cable, and in order to not rip apart, the steel cable would have to have a diameter of about 10 miles at the center of mass. Yeah...
So you can put objects into geosynchronous orbit. There are a lot of satellites in this orbit. The orbital period of something at geosync is 1 day so the satellite sits above a single spot on the earth's surface.
If you extend a cable down towards earth, and a balancing mass out into space, the center of mass of the cable is still at geosync so it orbits the earth once per day. If you make it rotate once per day as well, then the "low" end of the cable will stay on/near the earth's surface. This end of the cable doesn't support any weight so it can be arbitrarily thin. The strongest forces are at the center of mass, and this is where your cable needs its strength. Calculations have been done for a steel cable, and in order to not rip apart, the steel cable would have to have a diameter of about 10 miles at the center of mass. Yeah...
I think it would be ~300 Billion dollars, but the point is its COMPLETELY WORTHLESS. We have no good reason whatsoever to be in space other than dick waving, and we can do that just fine here on earth by invading other countries and stuff.
Also, apparently most people here don't get the basic idea behind the elevator, its not a building we build UP to space, its a rope connecting between earth and a space station. The elevator is not under compression it is under tension. Imagine swinging a bucket of water around in a circle connected to a string. Thats the whole idea behind the thing, the only problem is getting a rope string enough (and long enough) to stretch from the earth all the way up to space. IF you know anything about how much it costs to launch payloads into space you will say that a gigantic rope miles long and a foot thick will cost tens or hundreds of billions to launch into space even IF we had a strong enough material to make it out of.
See the problem is that a moon colony would weight LESS than the elevator itself so it would be cheaper to just launch it all with rockets than building the elevator. A space elevator only becomes economical at some point where you have a need to launch thousands of tons into orbit every year and that is still at least 100 years off.
Also, apparently most people here don't get the basic idea behind the elevator, its not a building we build UP to space, its a rope connecting between earth and a space station. The elevator is not under compression it is under tension. Imagine swinging a bucket of water around in a circle connected to a string. Thats the whole idea behind the thing, the only problem is getting a rope string enough (and long enough) to stretch from the earth all the way up to space. IF you know anything about how much it costs to launch payloads into space you will say that a gigantic rope miles long and a foot thick will cost tens or hundreds of billions to launch into space even IF we had a strong enough material to make it out of.
See the problem is that a moon colony would weight LESS than the elevator itself so it would be cheaper to just launch it all with rockets than building the elevator. A space elevator only becomes economical at some point where you have a need to launch thousands of tons into orbit every year and that is still at least 100 years off.
erikistired
Diamond Member
- Sep 27, 2000
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JTsyo
Lifer
- Nov 18, 2007
- 12,014
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The actual elevator wouldn't be like what you see in a building. It would be something that can ride on the line(s) that are anchored between the ground and a station in space. Geo-sycn orbits are around 22,240 miles (fix'd). While a space elevator offers cheap transportation to space I don't think we're near the need for it. What we need now is a cheaper space shuttle.
EDIT: A 22,000 mile structure sounds much more difficult
EDIT: A 22,000 mile structure sounds much more difficult
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