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Space Elevator Update

Posted by Zonk on from the going-up dept.

TheMadReaper writes "The 2005 edition of the Space Exploration Conference in Albuquerque, NM came to a conclusion earlier this week. A large fraction of the conference was devoted to the Space Elevator. Surprisingly, there hasn't been much news coverage of this conference, perhaps because it doesn't have Space Elevator in its name. The most interesting fact I got from the conference is that money is really starting to exist in the space elevator world mainly thanks to the work of Dr. Bradley Edwards at ISR and at Carbon Designs, Inc. The strong nanotube talk was also more promising than last year."

5 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. More practical update... by isny · · Score: 5, Funny

    Update: Still on ground floor.

    1. Re:More practical update... by Jerf · · Score: 5, Funny

      Right now our biggest practical problem is working out how to include roughly 23.5 million buttons for floors in the elevator compartment.

      Our previous best accomplishment in this domain, pioneered by the great elevator engineer Willy Wonka with his ground breaking, or rather sky-light breaking, Glass Elevator, is short by several orders of magnitude. (You can also see early Space Elevator technology there, but we've not been able to replicate his claimed performance without a tether; see the report in the sequel to the Chocolate Factory book.)

      I am confident once we overcome that problem that everything else should be easy.

      (If you're wondering where that number came from, that's geosync orbit at 22,241 miles, times two as I'm using the elevator variant that continues on out for counterweight and flinging ability, and estimating 10 feet per "floor", so 22241 * 2 * 528 = 23,486,496.)

  2. Space elevator: really a good idea? by boingyzain · · Score: 5, Funny

    The music in normal elevators is already driving me crazy...

    Imagine going upwards for hundred sof miles while having to listen to Julio Iglesias' songs, performed by some guy on a synthesizer. NOOOOOO!

  3. Warning label you won't see by boingyzain · · Score: 5, Funny

    A warning label you won't see on the space elevator:

    In emergency, USE STAIRS.

  4. Re:Money by hunterx11 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone who wants to build another Tower of Babel because they read about it in the Bible clearly didn't finish reading it.

    --
    English is easier said than done.