Could you push 100,000 for me? Thanks...

[VulcanRider]

Space elevator would take humans into orbit

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new space race is officially under way, and this one should have the sci-fi geeks salivating. The project is a "space elevator," and some experts now believe that the concept is well within the bounds of possibility -- maybe even within our lifetimes. A conference discussing developments in space elevator concepts is being held in Japan in November, and hundreds of engineers and scientists from Asia, Europe and the Americas are working to design the only lift that will take you directly to the one hundred-thousandth floor. ... A cable anchored to the Earth's surface, reaching tens of thousands of kilometers into space, balanced with a counterweight attached at the other end is the basic design for the elevator. It is thought that inertia -- the physics theory stating that matter retains its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force -- will cause the cable to stay stretched taut, allowing the elevator to sit in geostationary orbit. The cable would extend into the sky, eventually reaching a satellite docking station orbiting in space. Engineers hope the elevator will transport people and objects into space, and there have even been suggestions that it could be used to dispose of nuclear waste. Another proposed idea is to use the elevator to place solar panels in space to provide power for homes on Earth. If it sounds like the stuff of fiction, maybe that's because it once was. In 1979, Arthur C. Clarke's novel "The Fountains of Paradise" brought the idea of a space elevator to a mass audience. Charles Sheffield's "The Web Between the Worlds" also featured the building of a space elevator. ... But, jump out of the storybooks and fast-forward nearly three decades, and Japanese scientists at the Japan Space Elevator Association are working seriously on the space-elevator project. Association spokesman Akira Tsuchida said his organization was working with U.S.-based Spaceward Foundation and a European organization based in Luxembourg to develop an elevator design. The Liftport Group in the U.S. is also working on developing a design, and in total it's believed that more than 300 scientists and engineers are engaged in such work around the globe. NASA is holding a $4 million Space Elevator Challenge to encourage designs for a successful space elevator. Tsuchida said the technology driving the race to build the first space elevator is the quickly developing material carbon nanotube. It is lightweight and has a tensile strength 180 times stronger than that of a steel cable. Currently, it is the only material with the potential to be strong enough to use to manufacture elevator cable, according to Tsuchida. "At present we have a tether which is made of carbon nanotube, and has one-third or one-quarter of the strength required to make a space elevator. We expect that we will have strong enough cable in the 2020s or 2030s," Tsuchida said. ... Other difficulties for space-elevator projects include how to build the base for the elevator, how to design it and where to set up the operation. Tsuchida said some possible locations for an elevator include the South China Sea, western Australia and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. He said all of those locations usually avoided typhoons, which could pose a threat to the safety of an elevator. "As the base of space elevator will be located on geosynchronous orbit, [the] space elevator ground station should be located near the equator," he said.

In 1980, in a high school physics class, I had to write a paper on various energy sources. One of my suggestions was to boost nuclear waste into orbit, give it a push, and let it burn up in the Sun. Maybe I should've gotten a copyright on that paper...

Wherever they build it, that area will become a worldwide trade center, a "port of call" for spacegoing people/merchandise. Could turn a patch of desert into a metropolis...

[Beaumanoir]

This has been in the pipeline for years hasn't it? The only real way of efficiently getting people in to space and back. We just need to sort out the materials out. I reckon that once we get spider silk sorted, we're on the way.

[SpiritWarrior]

Sounds interesting. Almost too hard to believe.

Oh and LOL@your Beau's sig.

[Spirits Reborn]

Wow! This sounds awesome.. And you're right it could very well do that. Man this sounds so uber geeky of me - but I totally remember hoping something like this would be in production after watching gundam 00 . haha

[Chewbacca]

This may be the concept which makes space travel/ colonization truly accessible for most everyone.

Robert Heinlein's book "Friday" also had space elevators, with cables made of diamond IRRC.

[VulcanRider]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca This may be the concept which makes space travel/ colonization truly accessible for most everyone..

I hope so, cause I think we're gonna need it. I honestly don't think the human species has the self-restraint to live within our existing resources, and eventually we're going to fill up the planet with people or trash, or both.