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5595 Days and Counting

Posted by michael on from the boundless-optimism dept.

Kris_J writes "Seattle PI appear to have been the first to pickup the story that a former member of Highlift ("Space Elevator") Systems has split off to form Liftport. The new company has the impressive aim of a space lift by July 1st, 2018. Competition is supposed to be good, right? If you want to know more they've got a messageboard where you can ask questions."

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm willing to bet $$$ it will never work by Psion · · Score: 3, Informative

    The gist of the article is that the carbon ribbon material they'll be using is strong enough for the 62,000 miles length needed to reach geosynch and the counterbalance beyond.

    Of course, the article also points out that the exact material has yet to be made...

  2. Even predicting the recent past can be tricky. by MarkusQ · · Score: 2, Informative
    If we have nanotubes in quantity tomorrow, I'll be the first to cheer, because you can do many interesting things with them on a smaller scale than building space elevators. However, I'm not holding my breath.
    Start cheering then. We have the means to manufacture them in quantity now. (Basically, continious process vapor deposition, with a few tricks to it).

    The present problem is the old "how do they stick the teflon to the pan" problem; getting them to play nicely in composites, and finding ways to manufacture the composites.

    -- MarkusQ