Starship Asterisk*

Chris1985 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 19, 2018 5:35 pm
A new patent I just read about, will allow space elevators to be built with current materials.
It has multiple tethers at its center ( for greatest strength ) and fewer tethers
as you move away from center  ( for lesser amounts of mass ).
Liftport has plans to build a Lunar elevator from current material.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point wrote:
<<For the Moon, L₁ Lagrangian point is located 15.1% in front of the Moon;
the L₂ Lagrangian point is located 16.8% beyond the Moon.>>

Chris1985 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:08 pm How about a Chinese space station coming down? Sometimes you need to take a risk to make any real progress.
The material must be super light so it would flutter down like a kite. Parachutes could be attached. It will be
stationed to the west of Galapagos Islands and if broken, would fall to the west into open ocean.
$100/lb. to G.E.O. nothing else comes close. Above G.E.O. you get a free ride to the Moon or Mars etc.
Too many positives to not give it a shot if it will work.

Chris1985 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 19, 2018 5:35 pm A new patent I just read about, will allow space elevators to be built with current materials.
It has multiple tethers at its center ( for greatest strength ) and fewer tethers
as you move away from center  ( for lesser amounts of mass ).
Liftport has plans to build a Lunar elevator from current material.
Using that same material for an Earth based elevator would reach the lunar gravity center
(about 9,000 km AGL) approx. 1/6 G. Add this new concept and you could reach Earth's surface.
We can do this now. Let's get started. What do you think?

Fred the Cat wrote:

rstevenson wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:
Given the potential for causing widespread destruction, as well as being a target for the unstable (whose numbers are ever on the rise), I'm glad we are still a long ways from being able to make such a thing.

In Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy just such an event takes place, to catastrophic consequences. It's all too clear just how vulnerable such a device would be, though it would be incredibly handy if we could build it.

I agree. Although terraforming was the main plot driver in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, it was the space elevator that enabled much of the action. And indeed - disruption of its function was the method of choice for the 'terrorists" of day.

If we do ever create such technology you'd hope our social issues would have been equally addressed by then. Of course you'd need an actual method for social "science" advancement too.

• We've had a few of those, too, from time to time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#Sexuality wrote:
<<Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was close to a Sri Lankan man, Leslie Ekanayake (13 July 1947 – 4 July 1977), whom Clarke called his "only perfect friend of a lifetime", in the dedication to his novel The Fountains of Paradise. Clarke is buried with Ekanayake, who predeceased him by three decades, in Colombo's central cemetery. In his biography of Stanley Kubrick, John Baxter cites Clarke's homosexuality as a reason why he relocated, due to more tolerant laws with regard to homosexuality in Sri Lanka.>>

rstevenson wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

E Fish wrote:I remember reading Clarke's book that they mention here, Fountains of Paradise, when I was in high school. The whole concept of a space elevator was fascinating to me and I always hoped that there might be something to it.

Given the potential for causing widespread destruction, as well as being a target for the unstable (whose numbers are ever on the rise), I'm glad we are still a long ways from being able to make such a thing.

In Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy just such an event takes place, to catastrophic consequences. It's all too clear just how vulnerable such a device would be, though it would be incredibly handy if we could build it.

Rob

Chris Peterson wrote:

E Fish wrote:I remember reading Clarke's book that they mention here, Fountains of Paradise, when I was in high school. The whole concept of a space elevator was fascinating to me and I always hoped that there might be something to it.

Given the potential for causing widespread destruction, as well as being a target for the unstable (whose numbers are ever on the rise), I'm glad we are still a long ways from being able to make such a thing.

distefanom wrote:I ever wondered why, this kind of scientific investigations (Tethered satellites), NEVER have had a "sequel" of any kind...

E Fish wrote:I remember reading Clarke's book that they mention here, Fountains of Paradise, when I was in high school. The whole concept of a space elevator was fascinating to me and I always hoped that there might be something to it.

E Fish wrote:I remember reading Clarke's book that they mention here, Fountains of Paradise, when I was in high school. The whole concept of a space elevator was fascinating to me and I always hoped that there might be something to it.

Dr. Work wrote:The space shuttle's name is Atlantis, not Altantis. Whoever writes these blurbs often doesn't do the greatest job spell-checking his or her work. If APOD ever wants help with that, I'm available!

neufer wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.