Poll: Engineering the Earth's orbit or building a 35,000 mile elevator?

[beer]

So the question is, when were the NASA smoking more:

When they came up with the Space Elevator idea?
(Anandtech source: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=426835&start=1)

Or when they came up with the idea to move the Earth?
(Anandtech source: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=468289)

 

[ratkil]

I think they were smoking the most when they really thought they could fool the world into believing they actually put a man on the moon ;-)

 

[mk52]

I think they are already on the next level and use crack to come up with those fancy theories.

-MeliK

 

[StormRider]

The space elevator concept has been around a long time. I remember reading about it in one of Arthur C. Clarke's novels.

 

[Alienwho]

nasa gets paid to come up with ideas like this?

 

[AndrewR]

Yep, the space elevator idea has been around awhile and is featured in works by many science fiction authors (my favorite, Walter Jon Williams, has one in Hard Wired). It's beyond our capacity right now (materials mainly -- need something incredibly strong to support the weight of the tower), but it's certainly an intriguing possibility and a definite improvement over rockets.

This is the first I've heard of the "Earth moving" idea. I like the part about, "Oh, yeah, it would sterilize the biosphere if it hit accidentally." No problem!

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

you think that's crazy? have you seen the nasa thing on how they want to move the earth from its orbit to lower global temperatures? attach rockets to comets, steer them toward earth and move us off a little bit into an orbit further out.

 

[GoldenTiger]

They definitely smoked the most with the space elevator...

 

[Soccerman]

wtf, these things could actually work guys, theres nothing crazy about them!

all you need is of course, massive resources (in other words, FUNDING).

nasa gets paid to come up with ideas like this?

actually, no, they get paid mostly to put the space shuttle in orbit, and to get the ISS running. congress is only interested in the now, not the possible.

 

[Gunbuster]

Dont you know japan allready has that stuff (space elevator, mecha, girls in skimpy outfits.... oh wait, too much anime for me)