I can't believe people actually are still intertaining this idea. A space elevator made out of carbon nanotubes...just say it to yourself...if you still don't get it, turn off that Enterprise rerun you've watched 50 times and crack open a physics book. Read under the heading "Crack Pot Ideas Non-Scientists Think are Possible" and "Nothing in this Universe is Free"
Imagine for a moment something you do know to be true. A helicopter starts pulling up a VW bus via a wench and rope. Do you think a) The helicopter pilot does not increase his thrust b) The helicopter pilot does increase his thrust or c) The helicopter pilot does nothing different, just pushes a button on the wench? If you answered b or c large men with shot guns will be arriving at your house shortly.
This means that the orbiting station would have to be burning a huge amount of fuel to stay in orbit everytime something is lifted.
Look, take a tennis ball and tie a rope to it. Spin it above your head, then give it a jerk. That jerk is called gravity. Does the ball stay there or does it come towards you?
Now your saying, "Well this is different, there is going to be a giant rigid pole made out of carbon nanotubes that is going to support this thing". Even the very thought of how unfeasible this is, makes me angry even writing this...Do you know how much a building sways when it is only 300m tall? I'll tell you...it is on the order of meters. Multiply this number by 1000 when considering something this big. Factor in resonance effects of storms passing through it...I mean you thought Tacoma-Narrows was bad! This strain cycling leads to crack propagation = bad.
But the most telling part about this half-baked idea is that people are so concerned with the carbon nanotubes. *News Flash* materials fail at the weakest link, not the strongest. Any CNT would have to be glued together like a carbon fibre composite we all use today. The glue is usually the deliminating factor for composite failure. That being said, take your favorite carbon fibre golf shaft or tennis racket and then an arc welder. Go to town on it. The glue gets ablated...and your new shiny CNT tower falls to the ground killing everyone during the first thunder storm.
Bottom line is a ridig object that long, enduring dramatic heating and cooling cycles, winds stesses, costs, lead me to believe this idea is probably this worst being floated around today. And the costs...just building a tower with a base large enough out of todays composites, in order to with stand these forces and all the other myraid of engineering obsticles, would equal the combined GDP of the US/EU for a decade! And for what??? A reusable space shuttle would be infinitely cheaper, quicker to come to being, and not have huge consequences if it failed. Okay I've said my peace, now no more talk of this rubbish!
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Imagine for a moment something you do know to be true. A helicopter starts pulling up a VW bus via a wench and rope. Do you think a) The helicopter pilot does not increase his thrust b) The helicopter pilot does increase his thrust or c) The helicopter pilot does nothing different, just pushes a button on the wench? If you answered b or c large men with shot guns will be arriving at your house shortly.
This means that the orbiting station would have to be burning a huge amount of fuel to stay in orbit everytime something is lifted.
Look, take a tennis ball and tie a rope to it. Spin it above your head, then give it a jerk. That jerk is called gravity. Does the ball stay there or does it come towards you?
Now your saying, "Well this is different, there is going to be a giant rigid pole made out of carbon nanotubes that is going to support this thing". Even the very thought of how unfeasible this is, makes me angry even writing this...Do you know how much a building sways when it is only 300m tall? I'll tell you...it is on the order of meters. Multiply this number by 1000 when considering something this big. Factor in resonance effects of storms passing through it...I mean you thought Tacoma-Narrows was bad! This strain cycling leads to crack propagation = bad.
But the most telling part about this half-baked idea is that people are so concerned with the carbon nanotubes. *News Flash* materials fail at the weakest link, not the strongest. Any CNT would have to be glued together like a carbon fibre composite we all use today. The glue is usually the deliminating factor for composite failure. That being said, take your favorite carbon fibre golf shaft or tennis racket and then an arc welder. Go to town on it. The glue gets ablated...and your new shiny CNT tower falls to the ground killing everyone during the first thunder storm.
Bottom line is a ridig object that long, enduring dramatic heating and cooling cycles, winds stesses, costs, lead me to believe this idea is probably this worst being floated around today. And the costs...just building a tower with a base large enough out of todays composites, in order to with stand these forces and all the other myraid of engineering obsticles, would equal the combined GDP of the US/EU for a decade! And for what??? A reusable space shuttle would be infinitely cheaper, quicker to come to being, and not have huge consequences if it failed. Okay I've said my peace, now no more talk of this rubbish!