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The Space Elevator - Public or Private?
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."
Not public or private. I like my variables protected.
I dare you to drop a penny off of the top.
Private: the elevator attendant (a Valued Associate) is your Customer Interface to the Space Elevator. The individual is in his/her teens, wears plenty of Company Issued "Flair," and beams incessantly as you say at what altitude you want your spacecraft released.
Public: the elevator attendant (a Civil Servant) only grudgingly speaks to you. The individual, dressed in a simple brown uniform, is in upper middle age, and won't release your spacecraft from the elevator without a 29B/6 form that's been stamped.
*ding ding*
2,756,234th Floor, Troposphere; Hardware, Automotive, and Lawn & Garden
Please watch your step as you exit and Thank You very much for shopping at Wal-Mart.
Friends help you move...
REAL Friends help you move dead bodies... ^_^
... is like "military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp".
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Elevator music all the way into space???
Seriously though, I think this is a crazy (as in dumb) idea. I'll give one example: Terrorists.
it's natural to assume that they will also want to oversee construction and whatnot, just to make sure Things Are Done Right.
"President Bush...what an unexpected surprise!"
"We can dispense with the pleasantries, commander. I am here to get you back on schedule"
"My lord, my men are working as fast as they can. Dick Cheney asks the impossible of us""
"Perhaps you can tell that to him personally when he arives"
Cue the imperial march
Government When you call to find out why you got released at 50 miles altitude rather than geosync from the Halliburton(tm) Space Elevator, your call has a bunch of mysterious clicks in the background before being cut off entirely. After you die horribly in the crash, it's announced that you were a terrorist who crashed the elevator deliberatly. The president goes on to bomb Syria, even though you'd never even been there.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Private Space Elevator: Musak plays in the background.
Public Space Elevator: John Ashcroft singing "When the Eagle Soars" plays in the background.
Tell that to the victims of the previous attempt at a space elevator. That is what everybody is imagining.
Then I can be bombarded with cosmic rays and become the human Torch! Flame On!
There has to be a way to "cut the cord" at this and and hope it flies out into space.
" Hope "?!? Not a big believer in physics, are we?
I sure hope you don't aren't flung into space today by the centripetal acceleration of the Earth's rotation today. Good luck with that.
Someday these things will be wireless.
Speak truth to power.
It will be in international waters, off of South America (I want to say Peru?).
I think there's an island full of Dinosaurs in that area that wouldn't like this idea. . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
So what if nanotube turns out to be the most potent mutagen EVAR? What if it destroys the earth's ecosystem? What if having that much nanotube in one place aligns the strings in the 11th dimension, and creates a wormhole into that universe with the evil Spock? What if the impact of the nanotube on the ocean surface catalyzes the crystalization of a new form of water solid, stable at room (ocean) temperature, thus turning the earth into an ice-9 planet? huh? what about that?!?!?!?!
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
And then watch it go sideways.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
What if the continent of Australia goes on a drinking binge and decides to take the elevator into space. Would this tend to slow doen the Earth and cause longer days?
..........FULL STOP.