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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."
Parent is not a troll. He's trying to make a point. The Space Elevator is a untested and unproven technology. Like all unproven technologies, there are bound to be hidden costs, hidden delays, and hidden engineering problems.
NASA is taking the correct approach. They are building something that they *know* works first. They can then work out the pixie dust^H^H space elevator next.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I agree completely. We've done the moon thing, and have tons of cool rocks. Why do it again? What will that $100 billion do for us that hasn't been done before? It would be much better spent researching and developing something like a 36,000-km nanotube ribbon than going up and getting more rocks. Even if the ribbon proves unproduceable, we would be investing in basic research, and not simply lining the pockets of the US space industry, ie Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, etc. to do something that has been done before.