Japan Will Have a Space Elevator by 2050

[CaseAgainstFaith]

It might be the stuff of science fiction dreams, but a Japanese construction company has announced that it will have built a working space elevator by 2050. Where can I join the queue?

According to the The Daily Yomiuri, construction company Obayashi Corp has announced it will have built a space elevator capable of shuttling passengers 36,000 kilometers above the Earth by 2050.

The company plans to use carbon nanontubes, which are 20 times stronger than steel, to produce the cables required for the elevator. Those cables will be stretched to a counterweight 96,000 kilometers above our planet, about one-fourth of the distance between the Earth and the moon.

The terminal station, 36,000 kilometers above Earth, will be reached by cars that can carry 30 people and travel at 200 kilometers per hour.

http://gizmodo.com/5887210/japan-will-have-a-space-elevator-by-2050

Japan just got a bit more awesome in my book.  I wonder how much it will cost to build this thing.

[MaybeNever]

36000 kilometers up, 200 kmh... so it'll take more than a week to get there? Space elevators are cool, and potentially even useful, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend a week in a glorified elevator car.

[Old Viking]

Sounds like a lot of button-pushing.

[gyeonghwa]

I'm afraid of heights as it is so no I won't be going on this glorified elevator.

[Lithp]

No! I refuse! They cannot have "The Twilight Graphic Novel" & a space elevator in the same country! That's just ridiculous!

[Art Vandelay]

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, I'll consider it to be right up there with the proposed New York to London undersea maglev line.

[Star Cluster]

As the article mentioned, this would be tremendously, monumentally expensive.  And that had better be one hell of a big elevator car, because for 30 people to take 7½ days to reach the space terminal will require quite a bit of food and drink, holding tanks for waste, sleeping facilities, accessible storage area for clothing and personal needs, plus cargo area (if you're going to take a week to get there and a week to get back, I'd imagine you'd want to stay a day or two.)

It would be impressive to see, but by 2050, if I'm still alive (I'd turn 94 that year,) I probably won't give a great big shit anymore.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

I keep picturing people arriving in various states of insanity after enduring seven days of elevator music.

[MaybeNever]

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, I'll consider it to be right up there with the proposed New York to London undersea maglev line.

That actually already exists, but, well... we don't let normies ride it.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

Indeed, only people with comically small penises are allowed to ride.

[sandman]

Eh, they only want easy access to zero gravity in order to make cheap tentacle porn.

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Why was I reminded of this picture?



The L5 society wanted to build giant spinning space colonies at the lagrange points in high Earth orbit back in the 1970s.

[Yla]

If they're only 20 times stronger than steel, they're not going to manage an elevator to geostationary orbit.
The problem about space elevators is that the structure has to support its own weight - and at 36000km height, it weighs a lot. Material sciences have made great progress but as far as I know, there's still an order of magnitude or so missing until the stuff is has the strength needed.

[Star Cluster]

If they're only 20 times stronger than steel, they're not going to manage an elevator to geostationary orbit.
The problem about space elevators is that the structure has to support its own weight - and at 36000km height, it weighs a lot. Material sciences have made great progress but as far as I know, there's still an order of magnitude or so missing until the stuff is has the strength needed.

The way I understand it, there will be a counter-weight that will be in geo-syncronous orbit at 96,000 km that will basically make the elevator itself weight neutral.  There are still major problems to overcome in building the damn thing, though.  I would think that once the counter-weight is in orbit, it  makes sense to build it from there down.

However, building a stationary object with a total height of 96,000 km is going to a have to take into consideration that there is a shitload of moving objects in lower orbits.  And the bulk of these are not steerable.  How are they going to avoid at least a few of these eventually crashing into the elevator?  Sure. it will be built of carbon nanotubes, but still, most of the satellites and space debris, especially those in low earth orbit, are moving at a few thousand km/h.  Are the carbon nanotubes going to be strong enough to withstand such an impact?  Probably not if they're only 20 times stronger than steel.

Like I said before, it would be impressive to see, but is it really practical?

[Yla]

A counterweight doesn't make the structure magically weightless - it still has to withstand it's own internal stresses and transfer the forces to the ground/counterweight.

And strength against vertical stress does not automatically translate into strength against horizontal stress.


http://xkcd.com/697/
Title: Tensile vs. Shear Strength