Author Topic: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050  (Read 8326 times)

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Offline Star Cluster

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #15 on: February 24, 2012, 04:01:15 pm »
Look, I'm not arguing that it's going to work at all.  I'm not an engineer and don't pretend to understand all that would be involved in even attempting to make something like this a reality.  But it is called a counterweight for a reason.  I would think that it would help to create an equilibrium along the length of the structure, but what do I know?

It's a colossal undertaking and, like I said, if I'm alive in 2050 I'll be turning 94 that year.  So I don't think I'll have much to worry about as far as seeing it built.   
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Offline Tolpuddle Martyr

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2012, 05:34:48 pm »
This just got posted on io9.

Quote
Based solely on the company's meager description — published two days ago in the Daily Yomiuri — it sounds as though Obayashi is flirting with the idea of using the carbon nanotubes in a "ribbon" setup — a popular concept among those familiar with space elevators. The basic idea is to use strong, light, and almost inconceivably flat sheets of carbon nanotube ribbon (think several meters wide, and thin enough to make paper seem bulky) as a rail system that runs perpendicular to Earth and keeps hold of robotic cars that glide along the ribbon to and from the planet.

If it sounds a little fanciful, that's because it is... at least, for now. Getting carbon nanotubes into this ribbon configuration is a significant technical hurdle. Translation: we can't do it yet, and it's possible that we never will; for the last five years, NASA has offered $2 million dollars to anyone who can can come up with a carbon nanotube tether strong enough to bring us significantly closer to making space elevators a reality. The prize money has gone unclaimed.

That didn't take long.

Offline Dan

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #17 on: February 25, 2012, 03:49:32 am »
Look, I'm not arguing that it's going to work at all.  I'm not an engineer and don't pretend to understand all that would be involved in even attempting to make something like this a reality.  But it is called a counterweight for a reason.  I would think that it would help to create an equilibrium along the length of the structure, but what do I know?
The way Arthur C Clarke envisioned it, you'd start with a large satellite in Geostationary orbit. From the satellite two cables would be manufactured: one reaching down to Earth, the other going the same distance in the opposite direction to form the counterweight.

Cutting the bottom end of the tether as in the xkcd cartoon would not be a big deal: the severed end would just hang there.

Cutting near the satellite would be a different matter.

Offline Yla

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #18 on: February 25, 2012, 05:18:20 am »
Sorry, I didn't want to piss on dreams. Space elevators are awesome. But I think a accelerator catapult setup or a transatmospheric plane are more realistic avenues.
That said, I've stopped trying to anticipate what people around here want a while ago, I've found it makes things smoother.
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Offline Star Cluster

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #19 on: February 25, 2012, 07:57:21 am »
Look, I'm not arguing that it's going to work at all.  I'm not an engineer and don't pretend to understand all that would be involved in even attempting to make something like this a reality.  But it is called a counterweight for a reason.  I would think that it would help to create an equilibrium along the length of the structure, but what do I know?
The way Arthur C Clarke envisioned it, you'd start with a large satellite in Geostationary orbit. From the satellite two cables would be manufactured: one reaching down to Earth, the other going the same distance in the opposite direction to form the counterweight.

Cutting the bottom end of the tether as in the xkcd cartoon would not be a big deal: the severed end would just hang there.

Cutting near the satellite would be a different matter.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking about when I mentioned all the satellites and space junk we have orbiting now.  I can easily imagine one of them colliding with some part of it and causing major mayhem.

Sorry, I didn't want to piss on dreams. Space elevators are awesome. But I think a accelerator catapult setup or a transatmospheric plane are more realistic avenues.

I couldn't agree more.  I think there are much easier and more cost effective ideas for getting into space.   Yeah, the space elevator is a nifty concept, but I just don't see the practicality of ever pursuing its construction. 
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Offline StallChaser

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #20 on: February 26, 2012, 07:07:57 am »
I keep picturing people arriving in various states of insanity after enduring seven days of elevator music.

I knew it!  Sheogorath is behind this!

Offline DarkfireTaimatsu

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #21 on: February 26, 2012, 08:03:42 am »
I can see the inventors of this now:

"Screw you, Roald Dahl! So you hated the Gene Wilder adaptation of Chocolate Factory so much--I... have no idea why, at least you died before the Johnny Depp abomination was made--that you made it legally impossible to make a movie of the sequel book. Well, screw you! We're making it IN REAL LIFE! Choke on that!"

...At least that would be my reasoning for making such a device.
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Offline Ranger_Joe

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #22 on: February 27, 2012, 09:31:01 am »
I just want to HALO off the fucking thing. Think they would give me a free ride up for that? I'd need two tanks of oxygen and a 'chute with a reserve like a LALO 'chute to do it, m'thinks. Even if I don't survive...Epic view, right?
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Offline Podkayne

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #23 on: February 27, 2012, 10:02:42 am »
Sorry, I didn't want to piss on dreams. Space elevators are awesome. But I think a accelerator catapult setup or a transatmospheric plane are more realistic avenues.
Plus the accelerator catapult can be run with clean energy.
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Offline StallChaser

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2012, 05:19:27 am »
I just want to HALO off the fucking thing. Think they would give me a free ride up for that? I'd need two tanks of oxygen and a 'chute with a reserve like a LALO 'chute to do it, m'thinks. Even if I don't survive...Epic view, right?

You'd just sort of... float there, if you stepped off.  Even if you shoved off as hard as you possibly could, you'd end up in an elliptical orbit that never reaches the atmosphere.

Just use a balloon :)

Offline Podkayne

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #25 on: February 28, 2012, 08:07:59 am »
I just want to HALO off the fucking thing. Think they would give me a free ride up for that? I'd need two tanks of oxygen and a 'chute with a reserve like a LALO 'chute to do it, m'thinks. Even if I don't survive...Epic view, right?

You'd just sort of... float there, if you stepped off.  Even if you shoved off as hard as you possibly could, you'd end up in an elliptical orbit that never reaches the atmosphere.

Just use a balloon :)
Arthur C Clarke wrote about that precise thing happening to a construction worker who falls off the orbital tower they're building. Fountains of paradise, I think.
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Offline Canadian Mojo

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #26 on: February 28, 2012, 03:20:26 pm »
I just want to HALO off the fucking thing. Think they would give me a free ride up for that? I'd need two tanks of oxygen and a 'chute with a reserve like a LALO 'chute to do it, m'thinks. Even if I don't survive...Epic view, right?

I'm sure this guy would agree with you. Sounds like you might want a drogue chute for it though.

What's your bad-ass one-liner as you step off going to be?

Offline Dan

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Re: Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050
« Reply #27 on: February 28, 2012, 03:41:45 pm »
It depends how far up you are when you step off.

At the geostationary orbit height you wouldn't go anywhere.
Lower than that you'd fall but you'd drift West and either land or go into an elliptical orbit depending how high you started.
Higher than the geostationary height you'd go into orbit or possibly escape Earth's gravity entirely, if the cable went high enough.