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Thoughts on the Space Elevator
Keith Curtis writes to tell us that Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, has posted his thoughts on why NASA should be building a space elevator instead or their current plans. Keith has also posted his throughts from an engineer's perspective (although admittadly still not a rocket scientist). "The challenges are many, but it has been a viable option since carbon nanotubes, structures so strong that one the width of a human hair could lift a car, were invented. A space elevator could be between 10 and 2000 times cheaper than conventional technology and will force NASA to change just about everything they do. Hopefully one day that bureaucracy will wake up and realize it."
Maybe you should check a "British" dictionary.
Since he can't spell, and is too lazy to use the spellcheck, more likely American.
Without all those alchemists trying to make gold, you wouldn't have your precicious chemistry now
Ignoring the factual errors of that statement (modern chemistry was driven forward by a number of factors, the foremost being explosives manufacture, metallurgy and industrial processes such as clothes dying), the fact remains: lead was never made into gold.
There is a reasonable chance we will find a way
No, there is not. Do *not* claim this again without proposing at least a *theoretical* way this could happen. I don't like people who turn to "I-dont-know-but-it-will-happen-anyways" as their solution; you might as well credit pixie dust. In fact, you effectively are crediting pixie dust until you propose a possible way to deal with the fundamental physics problem that stands in the way.
In short: Put Up, Or Shut Up.
You were correct, however, that we probably would get things of great value in the process.
Also, I can kill you with my brain.
Maybe you should read the entire paper. The ribbon moves in a vacuum. The launch vehicles are lifted by an elevator up to 80km and launched from there.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Whereas you, a person who hasn't even studied it for more than 30 seconds, can tell it's crazy talk. Sigh.
How we know is more important than what we know.