Are space elevators viable and worth it?
Are space elevators viable and worth it?
Hunter Thompson
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Kayden Long
Yes, and yes.
Problem right now is fabrication.
carbon nanotubes greatly lose strength for every atom out of place.
so 10 atoms out of place on a cable that should have gigatons of tensile strength. results in a cable that a few hundred pounds of tensile strength.
Brandon Wood
How would one produce enough nanotubes for such a project? What would the cost be?
Ian Morales
Do you know what a realistic construction for a macroscopic carbon-nanotube-based "rope" would be? Seems to me you need to make strands that are each a continuous nanotube miles long, which is quite a feat. Can they be shorter and braided more like a rope? I just imagine that fraying apart under the massive tension.
Not protesting, I find the idea cool, just don't know much about it.
James Ortiz
Billions but i'd be worth the money in the long run
Ayden Davis
Maybe. Issue 1 is making strong enough materials, issue 2 is power transmission efficiency.
In terms of energy use, space elevators might be less efficient than rockets because of the low efficiency of laser power beaming.
There is an interesting case for a lunar space elevator, which can be constructed with materials we have today. One of the use cases for that is being able to get stuff from LEO to the lunar surface using high ISP, but low thrust ion drives. This makes it cheaper to get a unit of mass to the lunar surface.
Logan Morgan
>gigatons to a few hundred pounds
It doesn't work that way. Stop memeing
Aaron Flores
How would security of the elevator be carried out?
Grayson Ward
They will never work on Earth.
We could probably do it on Mars with current technology and infinite money.
Ayden Ross
On Mars yes, on Earth no.