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Space Elevator Prototype Climbs MIT Building

Posted by timothy on from the no-place-for-lecter-to-hide dept.

Jackie O writes "According to an employee blog on the Liftport Group website, their prototype robot for the Space Elevator has just successfully climbed a 260-foot building (in a driving snowstorm, no less) at MIT. Now all they have to get it to do is climb over 60 thousand miles into space, carrying things. Good luck there." Update: 11/17 05:17 GMT by T : Liftport has posted some photos from the ascent, too. Thanks!

16 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. superhero's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I bet Spiderman is just a tad bit jealous...

  2. Oh great, by A+Boy+and+His+Blob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are we going to start measuring stuff in MIT building heights now?

    1. Re:Oh great, by iamlucky13 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Bah! You people are sad. Already 60 posts in and no one has taken his suggestion (plus the blog says 290 feet).

      1 foot = 0.00344 MIT Green Buildings (MITGB's)

      One Mile = 18.2 MITGB's

      1 kilometer = 11.3 MITGB's

      Space Shuttle orbit = 3,186 MITGB's

      Space Elevator Tether Point = 1,092,400 MITGB's

      Looks like they've got a little bit of scaling up to do.

  3. The real purpose by The_Rippa · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard the real purpose of the test was to place a police car on the roof.

  4. Re:When? by k4_pacific · · Score: 5, Funny

    Exactly, for example, scaling fish is dangerous work and rather nasty as well.

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    Unknown host pong.
  5. how many smoots in a green building? by johnpaul191 · · Score: 3, Funny

    if those MIT kids can measure a bridge in Smoots (Smoot was a student), they can measure make the Green building a larger unit..... try and stop em....

  6. Thats nice but... by skyman8081 · · Score: 3, Funny

    How tall is that... in Smoots?

    WikiPedia entry on the Smoot, if you have no clue what I am talking about.

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  7. Space elevator practicalities by RealProgrammer · · Score: 5, Funny
    Every time this is mentioned, I get all kinds of Larry Niven RingWorld flashbacks for some reason.

    As cool as this idea is, there are some problems (especially for the lower altitudes). Some of the problems are more serious than others:

    • Wind shear: winds at various altitudes can differ widely. Both the cable and anything climbing it will be affected.

    • Resonance: a cable will tend to vibrate; it will be necessary to dampen the vibration. Usually this is done with strategically placed weights. With an object climbing the cable, however, the resonance will be constantly changing.

    • No Adspace: There will be no place to put banner ads, so the thing will never be profitable.

    • Environmentally Harmful: birds could run into it and die. Doesn't anyone consider birds?

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    1. Re:Space elevator practicalities by glwtta · · Score: 5, Funny
      Environmentally Harmful: birds could run into it and die. Doesn't anyone consider birds?

      Again with the birds! Birds will fly into just about anything over 5 feet tall - it's called "natural selection".

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    2. Re:Space elevator practicalities by jerde · · Score: 5, Funny

      >Doesn't anyone consider birds?

      I consider them to be evil feather-covered lizards. Does that count?

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      INsigNIFICANT
    3. Re:Space elevator practicalities by cryptoluddite · · Score: 5, Funny
      You forgot the most important problem:
      • Terrorism: A space elevator is vulnerable to terrorism at every part of its length. A terrorist can target any section of the elevator, but we have to defend all of it. That's not a winning stragegy -- we have to take the fight to them.
      So screw colonizing Mars, we need to occupy it now or the terrorists will win.
  8. Re:where's the link by gantrep · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just like the thing described....

  9. For Pete's sake by cuteseal · · Score: 3, Funny

    For Pete's sake... I'm going to get real mad if the guys on the 19th floor keep misusing our R&D technology just to fetch their morning "coffee and donuts"...

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  10. Re:stop laughing - prototype - ... by Lehk228 · · Score: 4, Funny

    i am pretty sure that a towering space elevator is at least as phallic as a rocket.

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  11. Way too long. by wasted · · Score: 5, Funny

    60000 miles = 316,800,000 feet.
    316,800,000 feet / 29 feet per minute = 20.77 years

  12. Just a question from a Norwegian by hyfe · · Score: 5, Funny
    When article mentions driving snowstorm, this does actually mean a driving snowstorm with lots of snow and cold and wind and more snow and everybody trying to stay inside?

    Or does it mean that it was fairly windy, snowing abit and it totalling a couple of centimeters on the ground and people who had watched to many catastroph-movies lately bandied about in Libraries burning books and being faintly surprised about how little warmth it produced?

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