very interesting NASA space elevator study

No, I was talking about Edwards' geosynchronous elevator (although phase
1 is interesting two). Some of the main points:

-- The growth of 2 cm carbon nanotube bundles
-- A design for a weaved, epoxied tether using 2 cm carbon naontube
bundles
-- A deployment concept starting with the smallest possible ribbon
tether, then using climbers to add material
until the desired strength is reached
-- Attachment to a sea-going base
-- A lot of detail on the design of the components

johnf4303 wrote:
>
> I think Al was talking about Edwards' "phase 1" elevator (the
> hypersonic skyhook). They're saying that Spectra 2000 polyethylene or
> maybe even Kevlar would build one of these. Almost certainly either
> fiber would do for a momentum exchange tether (slingshot).
>
> Al Globus wrote:
> >> What Edwards paper does is show us that existing
> >>materials can, plausibly, build the elevator.
>
> Ian W wrote
> > If so, I've missed the news. AFAIK it's not yet
> >possible to build, say a foot long length of the
> >required strength, or even a 1 mm length; and
> >38000km is a bit more than that.
>

--
Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
aglobus@..., (650) 604-4404
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

The dinosaurs weren't spacefaring. We are. I don't think that's an
accident. Maybe we are life's taxi to the stars.