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Graphene Spun Into Meter-Long Fibers
ananyo writes "Nano-sized flakes of graphene oxide can be spun into graphene fibers several meters long, researchers in China have shown. The strong, flexible fibers, which can be tied in knots or woven into conductive mats, could be the key to deploying graphene in real-world devices such as flexible batteries."
No, it's a graphene fiber, not an ass-fiber. Didn't you even read the summary?
My ass-fibers are graphene, you insensitive clod!
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
And then, finally, what happens if there is an accident? Many kilometers of highly energized, and kinetically taught razorwire with toughness surpassing all other construction materials whipping round the planet sounds pretty dangerous to me.
I don't have the link handy, but someone actually did the math on this. Due to the mass vs. surface area (and how much energy will be lost to air resistance), the cord will land softly along the surface of the earth from the anchor to the breakpoint. The greater danger will be had by the station at the top of the cord, but there are ways to stabilize the rotation it would suffer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_fountain
Space boner. Look at the picture and read the first paragraph. It's a space boner.
If we only had to go to LEO, we'd probably have done it already.
Also, there are a ton of satellites in LEO, and most of them are likely to hit the tether at some point. It is just a matter of time (and not as much time as you'd think -- you'd probably have a near miss every couple weeks).
Relevant xkcd: http://www.xkcd.com/37/