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253 Comments
- synthaxx, on 10/03/2008, -2/+159The human body wasn't meant to survive 3 days of continuous elevator music.
- KingGorilla, on 10/03/2008, -1/+102I'm all for equipping the Earth with a mace
- Renster84, on 10/03/2008, -4/+9650,028th floor. "menswear"
- GorfTron, on 10/03/2008, -1/+55Year 2030 -Elevator unveiled.
Year 2031 - World introduced to new term "spontaneous elevator induced cannibalistic psychosis". - replaysMike, on 10/03/2008, -3/+49Haha, he said "climb the shaft"
- paintgrl, on 10/03/2008, -3/+47They had something like that in Cowboy Beebop. Great to see sci-fi come true.
- Jimbozu, on 10/03/2008, -2/+41The top of the elevator is moving at orbital velocity in a geosynchronous orbit, so as you climb the shaft you're velocity increases until when you reach the top, your at orbital velocity.
- mysticalone, on 10/03/2008, -2/+38will there be elevator music?
- DubBucket, on 10/03/2008, -2/+30"We expect that we will have strong enough cable in the 2020s or 2030s," Tsuchida said.
Not so "near", but diverting a little more money that way could speed things up. - mrbradg, on 10/03/2008, -2/+29It would really suck if the cable broke.
- GorfTron, on 10/03/2008, -0/+222036 - People finally start eating at Joe's.
- pitdog, on 10/03/2008, -2/+24Lots of things would be possible if the money went to science, not war.
- luke374, on 10/03/2008, -2/+23Obviously this author has never heard of Wonkavators.
- BigManOnCampus, on 10/03/2008, -2/+20The answer is yes, you are missing part of the physics. The earth is rotating at the rate of once-per-day, which at 30,000 km approximates to a radial velocity of about 9,518 km/hr. Unless my calculations are off, that means an acceleration outward (away from earth) of about 2,490 km/hr/hr or 691 m/s/s, which is well above G force (9.8 m/s/s).
- BigManOnCampus, on 10/03/2008, -1/+19Good luck with space colonization China, I'm sure the Americans would have loved to have been the country that populated the solar system, but it looks like that's not going to happen.
- Suricou, on 10/03/2008, -0/+172032 - first suicide jumps from the top. Witnesses report a shooting star.
2035 - first orbital billboard constructed visible from the surface at night. - BigManOnCampus, on 10/03/2008, -1/+17If Athiests start bowing down to it, and sacrificing goats at the base, I'll consider what you say.
- paulieslim, on 10/03/2008, -2/+17imagine getting stuck in the elevator
- painting, on 10/03/2008, -20/+35boobs
- Greengoo, on 10/03/2008, -0/+14Now instead of being passed by meteors, we can swing our giant baseball penis and knock them back at those Romulan bastards.
- RogerStrong, on 10/03/2008, -2/+15Nope. The CENTER of the elevator - or at least the center of mass - is moving at orbital velocity in a geosynchronous orbit, There's a whole lot more cable running beyond geosynchronous orbit to counterbalance it.
This means that you can lift objects *beyond* geosynchronous orbit - and it'll seem like the gravity is directed away from earth. Let the object go at the distance up the cable and the proper time, and it'll getflung off towards the moon, Mars or elsewhere with no propellent cost. - StuartGibson, on 06/14/2009, -0/+13That has to be the most epically misplaced apostrophe Ive' ever seen.
- offrdbandit, on 10/04/2008, -0/+13In case of fire, use stairs.
- ASfinkterSezWut, on 10/03/2008, -0/+12Floors 1 through 50,024 - Ladies Wear.
Floors 50,024 through 50,027 - Children's Wear
Floor 50,028 Men's Wear. - Alli3388, on 10/03/2008, -2/+14Won't planes and birds and stray balloons get caught on it??
- jeexbit, on 10/03/2008, -0/+12"stairway to heaven" infinite loop
- Pegasus_Strain, on 10/03/2008, -2/+13That's what she said.
- Arasaka, on 10/03/2008, -0/+11Not near indeed. I always read advocates of the space elevator the same as advocates of Linux: "This is it! [Next year] is our year!"
- NeoNevermore, on 10/04/2008, -0/+10It would suck if someone pressed all the floors in the elevator.
- GorfTron, on 10/03/2008, -13/+23I would love to be the elevator man in that thing. I would be like "Going up? what floor?" and they would be like "This goes to space, retard" and I would be like "ohhhh, right."
- latrosicarius, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9There will be a counterweight on the top, or else the top of the structure will be far enough past the balance point where it can counterweight itself.
Take a yoyo and whirl it around in the air. The string is held taught because of the centripetal action. When the tower is complete, it will actually have a net tendency to uproot itself and fly into space, rather than "fall down" to the planet.
Yes, this does mean it will theoretically slow the earth's rotation over time, but it will be negligible considering the stalk's minuscule mass compared to the planet's. - Crimsoneer, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9I bloody well hope not.
- mulling, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9Launch Loops make far more sense, and they're more feasible. Also, launch loops wouldn't require a several-day journey through the radiation-filled Van Allen Belts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_loop - GorfTron, on 10/03/2008, -0/+8Sure. They can build the super-walmarts in orbit and drop them directly onto small communities around the world.
- crazyinsanoman, on 10/03/2008, -1/+9Could you imagine the shadow the elevator would create? It's like the ultimate sundial!
- Daxx22, on 10/03/2008, -0/+8Really, that's a chicken or the egg argument. A lot of practical technological advancements have come from military research programs.
Granted, diverting some of the massive funds marked for the military would vastly improve the civilian segment, but saying stop funding the military is short-sighted and wrong. - inactive, on 10/03/2008, -0/+7Yes, next thing you know they'll be purporting to sail the skies in "flying machines."
- PaulMassive, on 10/03/2008, -1/+8I would prefer a ladder to space personally. The Japanese will probs build it first tho.
- GorfTron, on 10/03/2008, -0/+799 luftballoons to be exact.
- petebot, on 10/03/2008, -8/+15that's what she said?
- Lith25, on 10/03/2008, -2/+9The thought that this won't happen in my lifetime makes me really depressed. I keep hoping for some extraordinary breakthrough that will allow me to travel in space before I turn 60 :(
- waspbr, on 10/03/2008, -1/+7As much as I would hope for it the space elevator is decades from reality (if not centuries), there's a very big problem yet to be solved concerning the materials to be used. Carbon nanotubes are promising in theory, BUT (there's always a but) growing (yes growing) nanotubes has proved to be a challenge, The world record of a single nanotube strain is at about 4 cm and there's a problem relating to the fact that nanotubes won't stick due to the unreactiviness (atomic bond wise). Promising as it may be carbon nanotubes are very, very far from making a viable building block material for the space elevator.
In one lecture a professor was telling me that while at Nasa they had produced a few 1-2 of nanotubes at a time and went on to record the feat, someone used a camera with a flash and BUM the nano-tube strain started combusting... so yeah... - cawfee, on 10/03/2008, -3/+9*SNAP*
"Houston, we have a~" oh never mind. - Neuro421, on 10/03/2008, -2/+8Hopefully many space elevators will give rise to the possibility of a space tram. Take your local elevator up to a tram station, then take the tram to any location in the world at 20,000mph. Imagine the possibilities. You could wake up and do your morning routine in the US, then commute to Asia for work and be back in time for dinner. Human beings would no longer be restricted by national boundaries. We can live anywhere, and work anywhere in the world community. Hopefully this will lead to cultures and ideologies blending, leading to an end to ideologically based conflict.
- RuthlessPirate, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6we could just build another one on the other side to balance it out
- docbob84, on 10/03/2008, -1/+7Yeah... probably best if we never build anything over 10 stories tall again. It's just too big a target for terrorists.
- SchrodingersCar, on 10/03/2008, -2/+8Wrong. The Universe is a great place to put our garbage because (I don't know the exact figures, but) it is at least 10-20 times larger than the whole Earth. Scentists estimate it would take over 300 years to fill the whole Universe with garbage, and we will definitely have invented a way to no longer produce any garbage by then.
- yayster, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5$100 per pound is a lot more affordable than $10000 per pound.
- drgreenberg, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5Only the portion above the break will fly up. A high break can bring a large mass of cable down to earth.
- GorfTron, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5I'm not sure but the solution will cost a trillion billion dollars.
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