June 25, 2004
SO EASY A CHILD COULD DO IT
Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years (Carl Hartman, AP, 6/25/04)
President Bush wants to return to the moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space.Posted by David Cohen at June 25, 2004 9:13 PMEdwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors.
"It's not new physics — nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up."
A 62,000 mile cable, thinner than a piece of paper, without a single defect that could lead to catastrophic failure? If that baby ever did snap, people on six continents would be treated to thousands of miles of free carbon nanotube material. Or would it all just burn up on re-entry?
Posted by: djs at June 26, 2004 8:05 AMBush should just post ten billion dollar bounties for the aquisition of specific needed scientific breakthroughs, plus a little development money for promising lines of investigation. Then let every innovative and ambitious technology firm in the world go after the targeted technology blockages.
We'll sort out all our petty problems in the next three centuries or so and then what? Collapse back into decadence and apathy? The human race needs a grand narrative to enoble it, and there's none better than the wide frontier. Wagons ho!
Let the free market develop space technology, NASA had it's chance and failed. it's a spent force now, I think that's pretty obvious.
Posted by: Amos at June 26, 2004 10:05 AMDJS -
I believe the physical safety problems have been considered and there are a variety of workable, albeit non-obvious solutions. What concerns me is that this would be the mother of all terror targets.
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at June 26, 2004 11:07 AMYeah, but people would go insane from listening to that much muzak on the way up.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at June 26, 2004 11:41 AMA space elevator wouldn't be for people, but ferrying supplies and construction material for space stations.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at June 26, 2004 2:05 PMTo do what, Chris? What are they doing in the space station we already have?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 26, 2004 2:38 PMDidn't Roald Dahl predict this in the sequel to Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?
Posted by: Buttercup at June 26, 2004 5:07 PMSeriously, wouldn't this require materials about 60 bazillion times stronger than what we have now? I mean, we might develop such things some time in the next few years, but it's odd to just assume so. I have a hard time swallowing this assumption-and I'm an economist.
Posted by: Fred at June 26, 2004 6:07 PMButtercup is right: Willy Wonka has had this technology for 40 years. About time he start ponying up. Plus we'll need his know-how when we encounter the Vermicious Knids.
Posted by: Governor Breck at June 26, 2004 7:15 PMFred:
No, we have materials that can do this now, but they're rather expensive to fabricate in multiple-gram quantities.
Posted by: mike earl at June 26, 2004 7:15 PMAlso: if this is feasible, it's an incredible military asset. Who needs missles or bombers when you can cheaply drop rocks on peoples' heads from space?
Posted by: mike earl at June 26, 2004 10:18 PM