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aelkins

Active Member
As if dodging cell towers, radio towers, and other airplanes isn't challenging enough. Soon, we may have to look out for 'Space Elevators'.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1002/p14s01-stss.html
Yes, an earth anchored elevator cable consisting of carbon nanotubes 62,000 miles up. (also anchored to a counter-weight)
No, this isn't a Star Trek episode, they actual anticipate it being a working project in as soon as 15 years.
Two questions come to mind...
1).. Wonder how many times 'Stairway to heaven' could play as the elevator music?
2).. How elastic is carbon nanotubes when struck by an RV during cruise speed?

For some reason, I picture an elevator recording somewhat like;
Welcome aboard !!
First floor...... Ultralights
Second floor.. Cessna 150s, Cubs, LSAs
Third floor...... RVs, Lancairs, Cirrus
Fourth floor.... da-da-da..
....
....
1200th floor.... Welcome to your destination, thanks for traveling with 'Fly-by-wire' aviation.. ;)
 
Mad scientists!! Wow, that is a pretty cool idea if it could actually be done. I wonder though if at some point all that stuff out there would start to slow the Earth's rotation rate, sort of the way a figure skater's spin rate slows when she extends her arms.
 
szicree said:
Mad scientists!! Wow, that is a pretty cool idea if it could actually be done. I wonder though if at some point all that stuff out there would start to slow the Earth's rotation rate, sort of the way a figure skater's spin rate slows when she extends her arms.
Click to expand...

Insufficient mass and drag to have any effect. As far as fly-by-wire, you can be sure there'd be a 30-mile P- space around each station.
 
Yes, crazy stuff. There are apparently serious people trying to win money in this scheme. It would probably be the mother of all vibration (albeit very, very low frequency) problems, though. I've never seen the problem of coriolis acceleration addressed in articles about this. Basically, the coriolis acceleration is the lateral force on the strand needed to accelerate the payload into the higher velocity associated with a larger radius from the earth's center. It is the force one felt (or feels, if you still ride merry-go-rounds) from the side when walking outward on a rotating merry-g-r.

I wouldn't hold my breath that these "elevators" will ever happen.

Oh, and it clearly would slow the earth's rotation down, just as you do when you walk up hill. It's just a bit small to measure. :cool:
 
3 Weeks to get there

The going up rate is 124 mph. It would take 500 hours to reach an orbit of 62000 miles, that's just under 3 weeks. The elevator would need a supply of food, water, air, a bathroom and perhaps an entertainment certer - I wonder if they've thought of everything? Or maybe we're going to use it to get rid of our trash.

The earth could end up with rings around it like Saturn - trash rings. Maybe that's what happened at Saturn billions of years ago created by some long lost civilization. There's enough junk in orbit here already to make a ring if it could all be lined up. The elevator will be needed in the future as we are currently dumping trash into the sea from huge barges. In 5000 years the sea will be full, the elevator should be ready by then.

That must be why they are thinking about it. :)
 
Coinneach said:
Insufficient mass and drag to have any effect. As far as fly-by-wire, you can be sure there'd be a 30-mile P- space around each station.
Click to expand...

Could be a lot of mass if these things catch on. Even if the mass is small, that's an awful long moment. :)
 
Are carbon nanotubes far along enough in development to even make 62,000 miles of them? Even if they could do such a thing, the COST!
 
DaX said:
Are carbon nanotubes far along enough in development to even make 62,000 miles of them? Even if they could do such a thing, the COST!
Click to expand...
Dax, keep working hard, carbon fiber nano tubes and thousands on welfare are depending on you.
 
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