Report: Space Elevators Are Feasible

Daniel_Stuckey writes "It's the scourge of futurists everywhere: The space elevator can't seem to shake its image as something that's just ridiculous, laughed off as the stuff of sci-fi novels and overactive imaginations. But there are plenty of scientists who take the idea quite seriously, and they're trying to buck that perception. To that end, a diverse group of experts at the behest of the International Academy of Astronautics completed an impressively thorough study this month on whether building a space elevator is doable. Their resulting report, 'Space Elevators: An Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward,' found that, in a nutshell, such a contraption is both totally feasible and a really smart idea. And they laid out a 300-page roadmap detailing how to make it happen."

Comments

Re:Why would it be infeasable?

[fustakrakich]

Yeah, the plastic they use for retail packaging should be strong enough.

Re:Arthur C. Clarke introduced me to space elevato

[Bite The Pillow]

Clarke had 256 pages and apparently conveyed the general ideas. Paying for 300 pages seems like a stupid thing to do if you want a general idea.

If they cannot communicate how it is feasible in an elevator speech, I don't expect to learn much in the manifesto.

3 pages has sufficed to explain the Higgs (excluding cartoons); I expect to understand the space elevator, in big boy words, in 2 or less. Anything else is hiding something, or so poorly written it cannot be trusted.

Superfluous vocabulary is ostensibly a plausible alternative, however a great many potential readers may find themselves sidetracked by such unnecessary verbosity. As such, I have expectations of a concise manner of thought conveyance as would be warranted by the writers. Vis a vis- said writer probabilistically desires their audience foremost not fall immediately into slumber.

Sounds like a great idea

[korbulon]

Main problem I foresee is what happens when someone presses all the buttons.