NASA Still Wants Space Elevator

Jerry Smith writes "The Guardian reports 'Each of the groups that will gather in New Mexico is competing to win a NASA prize set up to encourage entrepreneurs to start development work on the technology needed to create a space elevator.' It still might take a while though, progress is slow, so slow."

Comments

Moo

[Chacham]

I know a man named Otis who invented a room,
And his heart was filled with pride.
I said to Mr. Otis, "What does your room do?"
He said, "It goes from side to side."
So I said, "Mr. Otis, if you take my advice,
You'll be the richest man in place.
You gotta take that room that goes from side to side,
And make it go to outer space."

And that was good advice, good advice.
Good advice costs nothing, and it may win a prize.
NASA offered me
Four-hundred-thousand dollars, whee!
For good advice.

Re:Moo

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Otis didn't invent the elevator. He invented an elevator that wouldn't hurl it's screaming occupants to their firey deaths at the bottom of the shaft, impacted between the floor and ceiling of a crushed elevator. The safety elevator.

Took all the fun out of it.

Re:What happens

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, I thought they are building a "stairway"?

I'm having bad high school flashbacks; desperately seeking a partner for the last dance.

Slow? But why?

[192939495969798999]

I just don't understand what would take a long time about developing a nanotube ribbon countless miles long, and then suspending it in space... what's so hard about that? I think I have enough leftover cables from old pc's to about get there, if only they were thinner.

They'll have to earn it the old fashioned way

[krell]

If they want a space elevator, they'll have to earn it the old fashioned way: buy enough candy bars to get a golden ticket, and by all means RESIST all temptation to snack on that scrum-diddly-umptious confectionary cornucopia when touring the factory.

Re:What happens

[Anonymous Coward]

when a plane runs into the elevator? It only takes one crazy pilot.

That's where the frickin' laser beams come in.

Horrible idea

[oaklybonn]

If we are some day able to create this elevator, the distance involved means it will take several days to complete a journey from ground to earth orbit.
I have a hard enough time avoiding contact with "other people" in elevator cars -- but the real tragedy will be the music. Girl from Impenema for 72 hours straight?
Aaaraargh.
The only way I could see this working is if they piped in aerosol (-)-delta9-trans-Tetrahydrocannabinol and phillip glass...

Re:Horrible idea

[Anonymous Coward]

THC would make the journey seem like YEARS

Re:Horrible idea

[ArsonSmith]

Yea, the biggest problem this faces is not the cost of making the nano tubes, but the cost to license music that will last 72 hours and not drive people nuts. Once Nasa Engineer was quoted saying "It's easy in a short elevator ride of less than a minute. Most people can handle even the worst music for that log. A ride into space will have to have good music." Of the 900 Trillion estimate for the project more than 75% is in license fees to the RIAA.

There's a lady who's sure ...

[macdaddy357]

In geostationary orbit, a LED ZEPPELIN will be holding up this STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN. They will probably outsource much of the work to KASHMIR. I hope the isn't a COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN that makes the whole thing come crashing down OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY.

Nature points up the folly of man

[krell]

"Tornado's, earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding... Mother nature probably poses a very large threat to this thing"

History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man. You know that once Godzilla gets a bus caught between two gargantuan fangs that he just can't pick out with his silly T-Rex claws, he's going to be looking for some good dental floss.....

build a space elevator to Mars

[krell]

"The same technologies used to build a space elevator from earth would be usable for building other things: space elevators for other planets"

Got enough rubber to mix in with the nanotubes? That space elevator to Mars is going to need a LOT of stretch.

Re:"progress is slow, so slow"

[maxwell demon]

Money is expensive, so expensive.

Well, fortunately the NASA can use US Dollars, which are somewhat cheaper than Euros, or even British Pounds. :-)

One step at a time

[SEWilco]

though, progress is slow, so slow.

Yup, but just keep stacking the mud bricks, and it will eventually reach up there, even if it is many cubits high.

Why build an elevator?

[Millenniumman]

Are they too lazy to take the stairs?

Re:What happens

[Gilmoure]

That's where the frickin' laser beams come in.

With sharks attached to them!

Pluto!

[KC1P]

I just read an article claiming that Pluto and its largest moon have their days synchronized with the moon's orbit so they're always facing each other with the same side. If that's true, why waste our tax money providing yet another way to get into Earth orbit -- that's been done to death. We should build a bridge between Pluto and Charon! Or at least a tether. I mean we all know the real reason Pluto got demoted as a planet was because it was discovered by an American (hasn't cleared its orbit because of Neptune? oh please, Neptune's the one that hasn't cleared its own orbit), so we might as well just claim it as ours and have some fun with it, no one else wants it anyway. Plus, I'm sure Bush would favor building a forward base to protect us against the Vogons, as an excuse to transfer half my paycheck directly to Lockheed from now on.

Someone asked, what about planes hitting the space elevator? Well screw planes, what about satellites in low orbits? It would be a long shot, but if one hit it would hit hard.

Finally, what's this thing supposed to sit on? I know a lot of it isn't supposed to weigh much (even though I'm too ignorant to understand why not, only the far endpoint is actually in orbit, the rest is going the wrong speed for its altitude), but the first few miles sure would. You can't just pour a concrete footing and then put near-infinite weight on it, it'll just drill itself into the Earth's surface. We'll be lucky if the Earth doesn't crack open like an egg! Well I guess we could spread the load out, maybe build a frame all the way around and balance it with another space elevator on the flip side of the world. I mean we didn't even get the Big Dig right and we're talking about this, might as well think big since we know we're kidding ourselves (except for the part about blowing our tax money, that's real).

Re:What happens

[Anonymous Coward]

Name them.

Rocket jump?

Re:What happens

[Shajenko42]

It's better than snakes on a muthaf***in' space elevator!

Re:What happens

[tehcyder]

I love the giant pair of (alien? terrorist?) space scissors in the parent's first link. But you'd think someone would see them coming.