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Thoughts on the Space Elevator

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the no-such-thing-as-an-inefficient-government dept.

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."

4 of 622 comments (clear)

  1. Musak by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah but who wants to listen to that god awful music?

    1. Re:Musak by Crash+McBang · · Score: 5, Funny

      You get used to it after the first 5,000 floors...

      --
      To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
  2. Doom and gloom by millisa · · Score: 5, Funny

    I like the idea of the space elevator . . . but won't it be a prime target for terrorist attacks? I mean, if I was a terrorist, it'd be the first place I'd direct my hijacked pla . . . moment, there's a knock at my door.

  3. That's one small step for man... by Chysn · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...one giant leap for the first wise ass to press all the buttons (Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere...) and piss off the other astronauts.

    --
    --I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
    -- See?