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Inflatable Tower Could Climb To the Edge of Space

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the out-of-breath dept.

MonkeyClicker writes with mention of a proposal that could see an inflatable tower helping to carry people to the edge of space without the need for rocket propulsion. This would function in place of previous space elevator designs which featured a large cable and could be completed much faster, if proponents of the project are to be believed. "To stay upright and withstand winds, full-scale structures would require gyroscopes and active stabilization systems in each module. The team modeled a 15-kilometer tower made up of 100 modules, each one 150 meters tall and 230 meters in diameter, built from inflatable tubes 2 meters across. Quine estimates it would weigh about 800,000 tonnes when pressurized — around twice the weight of the world's largest supertanker."

14 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. bounce house by hguorbray · · Score: 4, Funny

    yep -world's biggest bounce house

    for the world's richest, most overgrown kids

    -I'm just saying

  2. Yah... by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    I came up with lots of ideas like this in college...I also smoked a lot of weed in college.

    1. Re:Yah... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Eventually you get to the ridiculous point where your tower is >100 m wide because the atmosphere is so thin.

      You naysayers will be crying when I build my giant space marshmallow chain.

      100 m wide? I don't think so. The trick is to fill them with your lighter-than-air mixture at the local atmospheric density... create, heat, inflate, rigidify, cool. And 100 m is just about right, from the base all the way up.

      When it gets too high, then you simply start at your Chambered Heuristic Orbital Clasp Object -- Ladder Attachment Terminal Endpoint, and work your way back down.

      The big problem I see is the earthbound anchor, but I believe professor William T. Graham (a pasty-white fellow my less couth colleagues refer to as a 'cracker') is working on a solution to that.

      All of humanity shall be as neanderthals around the campfire, envying the colossal testament to my intellectual superiority. Plus, they'll probably have a hankering for S'mores, what with the figurative campfire and all.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Yah... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're lucky. I smoked a lot of weed and didn't get any ideas like this. The only idea I got was "Man, you think the Steak and Shake is still open?"

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Yah... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      How long have you been waiting to use that? An entire post about graham crackers?

      Well, the idea came naturally to me when I started to respond to the prior poster about the column needing to be very wide as the atmosphere got less dense. And then I got to thinking about how marshmallows get their lightness, and I thought maybe it would be applicable to the problem at hand.

      And then I realized I hadn't had dinner yet, and that I'd better call my wife on my way home and ask her to start the charcoal for the grill. And then I started thinking about s'moresr,because it's summer, and I'll be grilling over charcoal tonight, and I just couldn't help myself.

      Sometimes the muse takes over and we just sit, trancelike, while the genius flows from our fingertips to the keyboard. I don't think that really was me typing, nor was it my idea... it was like some force greater than man itself took ahold of me -- just used me as a conduit for brilliance. Kind of like Noah's ark, I guess... it is not my place to question why. It is only my place to build it, as directed by what can only be the divine inspiration of He of the Tangled Forkful, the FSM.

      But seriously, if you think that was thought up ahead of time, and I'd been waiting to use... don;t you think it'd be a little more polished?

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    4. Re:Yah... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I smoked a lot of weed and didn't get any ideas like this.

      In case my daughter is reading this, you know Daddy's a kidder, right?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. World of goo by Fizzl · · Score: 5, Funny

    n/t

    --
    Bot Assisted Blogging
  4. zeppelin by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    They were trying to buld a zeppelin, but the printer did the plans in portrait format.

    Could happen to anyone.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Irving Schlock, I presume? by mrbene · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who else would be at the forefront of inflatable technologies?

  6. Babel by dugn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Didn't we do this already? I thought this is how we ended up with all the different languages.

    1. Re:Babel by rbrausse · · Score: 4, Funny

      was sagen Sie da?

    2. Re:Babel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your hovercraft is full of eels ?

  7. Re:Where will all the helium come from? by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just don't want to be the one to have to blow it up. I get dizzy after 5 balloons or so...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  8. Pootie? by Chas · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sa da te!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!