Space Elevator Group to Open Nanotube Factory

FleaPlus writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Universe Today report that the LiftPort Group, a consortium dedicated to commercially developing and constructing a space elevator, will be opening a carbon nanotube manufacturing plant in June of this year. The new facility has been dubbed LiftPort Nanotech. Many expect the LiftPort Group to be a front-runner in NASA's recently-announced Centennial Challenges competitions for space elevator technologies, which begin in September of this year."

Comments

Why stop at space elevators?

[DrMrLordX]

How many other applications will these nanotubes have in large-scale construction? Could they replace materials such as steel?

Re:Why stop at space elevators?

[MikShapi]

IANAMA (I'm not a materials engineer) but to my best understanding carbon nanotubes come in single walled (SWNT) and multiwalled (MWNT) flavors.
The former are what you want for the elevator because they have extraordinary tensile strength and are very light (worthy of noting is that while their *theoretical* tensile strength is 5 times what you need for an elevator - 300GPa - and you need a safety factor of about 2 to actually make one - ~110GPa - the strongest single SWNT made to date is somewhere around 60GPa. I *think*.)

The latter - multiwalled - are much more dense and so will not be fit for an elevator - too heavy. These might actually be of use where strong rigid materials are required, such as construction. Just remember that we construct not out of what is strong but of what is cheap and readily available, hence some places use more wood and others use more concrete, and nobody uses steel except where local cheap materials don't cut it (lile.. skyscrapers).

Would be nice to have someone who has up-to-date info clear this up.

Re:Why stop at space elevators?

[ErikZ]

I can see this replacing steel rebar in reinforced concrete once it gets cheap enough. The stuff will never rust, no matter how much it is exposed to moisture.

That's a practical application that carbon nanotubes can be applied to now

Re:its already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when did we have the capability to
make fiber optic cables over a mile long?
We didn't at first, and yet we STILL built
plants to spin fiber optics cable.

It's the same situation here.

Hint: it's called a "lab" by some people.
It's a production plant, technically,
since the focus is also on the industrial
system engineering problems of mass
producing carbon tubes.

E.g., where do the raw inputs go? What
machines connect the hopper to the next stage?
Where the computers located? What sensors
are needed to monitor the reliable production
of lengths of tube wires? We can make one
or two in the lab, but what other equipment
do we need to make fuckloads (that's a
technical term) of tubes?

We can make short tubes, yes. We're learning
how to make long ones. If we suddenly learn
how to make arbitrary length cables over night,
we'll be DAMN sorry if we haven't worked out
the production logistics of a factory first.

What a silly point you've attempted to raise.
And +2 mod already... Oh my.

This is why you read slashdot, while real men
go off and build the technology of a new
century.