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The Space Elevator - Public or Private?

Posted by michael on from the deep-pockets dept.

AtomicGoat writes "The Space Review reports that a Space Elevator may not get built without help from the U.S. Government, but the notion that 'the DoD can also provide a sense of fiscal discipline when dealing with large, expensive programs' sounds like an Onion story. Right now a small private company (Liftport), not NASA or the Air Force, is in the lead on revolutionary space travel."

2 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by NonGeekMoron · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Why are we wasting government money on an elevator that will take people into outerspace? Is there really a purpose to this thing or is it just a black hole that we're throwing money into? Seems like a waste of time and resources.

  2. Re:"May not get built without help from U.S. Gov.. by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Think about it. The reasons should not be hard to understand, but I'll give you a hint - objects orbit around other objects centers of mass. A geosynchronous orbit above a point not on the equator cannot possibly orbit a sphereish object with a gravitational center of mass at or near the center of the sphereishness.

    Yes, geosynch has to be at the equator.

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