Space Ribbon

I doubt that it'll be allowed to happen. The religious yahoos will accuse us (aka rational scientific thinking people) of building another "Tower of Bable."

Since God supposedly trashed the last one, they'll claim a moral imperative and supernatural mandate to destroy this one themselves.

You all remember that religous nut in "Contact"? I think we need to put our house in order before we can do something like this.
 
Burning up?

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You might want to read the NIAC report on their website. The carbon nanotubes would burn up on re-entry, there are not designed to withstand the heat of re-entry. The part that did not burn, would fall into the ocean, and it appears from early tests that large strips of the material are not dangerous. The ribbon would fall incredibly slowly, possibly taking weeks to reach the surface.
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Ummmmmm... I'm a little confused here. If it falls slowly, why would it burn up on re-entry? The heating (and subsequent burning up) is caused by the friction between the moving object and the molecules/particles in the atmosphere. If it's not moving quickly, there wouldn't be the necessary number of collisons to heat up the material, thus no burning up upon re-entry.
 
I think the correct explanation is that as a single entity it will take a long time to fall to the ground as it is so long, and therefore could be described as falling "slowly". However, like any other object that has mass gravity will take over until air resistance increases to cause the object to fall at terminal velocity i.e. fast enough to burn up.

However, because it would be so long interesting things would happen: the air resistance and effects of gravity around the lower end would be high but both gravity and air resistance at the top end would be low. Don't know what this would do though. Too hypothetical for me.
 
Ove said:


If you try going 15 years back and look at CPU size/price it sounds very plausible. In 1988 the CPU was a 8086 and a PC cost 4-6000$ (OK i'm shooting straight from memory but i think i'm pretty close).

If there is a demand for Carbon nano-tubes they will be available, trust me. ;)
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What makes you think this applies to anything other than CPUs? If this were true of all things then cars would now cost $0.50 and run for 10 years on one tank of gas...
 
Originally posted by Diogenes

Yep'.. We just need the equivalent of a ' Moore's Law ', for nano tubes!!
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There's always Hofstadter's law:

Hofstadter's Law : It will always take longer than you think, even if you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
 
So does this mean the elevator Astronauts will not make eye contact with each other on the way up to space?
 
The other more modern problem is that of some stupid idiot trying to crash into it, but then if it's strong enough to exist, an aircraft would probably be sliced in two when it hit it.
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Yeah, before I was halfway down this thread, I could hear the fundamentalists condemning "this tower of Babel - this abomination to God."
 
Agammamon said:
On a more practical note; The elevator will need to be constructed near the equator. If say the US built it we would most likely be in the same situation as when we built the Panama Canal (large expensive project in somebody elses backyard, how long could we keep control of it?).
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No need for the US to build it in somebody elses back yard. The US already owns both Howland and Baker Islands in the south Pacific right on the equator... just north of American Samoa. :)
 
edthedoc said:
As per Clarke's excellent book, half the structure would be in a constant state of trying to spin out into space due to centropetal force exceeding gravity.
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A centripetal force is a force which is directed towards a center.
The centripetal force in this case is gravity which is directed towards the center of the Earth.

And, as we all know, there is no such thing as centrifugal force.
But we do have Newton's first law which is something about the tendency of an object to continue at constant speed in the same direction unless and until it is acted upon by an external force.

When the ribbon breaks, the lower portion will fall down towards the center of the Earth until the surface of the Earth prevents it form falling any further. The upper portion will continue travelling along a tangent to the Earth's surface (actually, it will be a spiral path because of the continuing effects of a progressively diminishing gravitational force)
 
Crossing Fingers!

I just wanted to add that I have been in contact with the CEO of the research company involved in the Space Elevator project. I recently graduated college, and have been unable to find a decent job, the current job market is terrible. If they receive a large grant from NASA, the company plans to hire several people. I would really like to be part of it.

Wish me luck!
 
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