The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality

This new proposal for a space elevator is most interesting, for in the
beginning you would just have to launch a geostationary satellite with 20
tones of carbon nanotube thread (and 20 tones is perfectly achievable with
current rocket technology). The tip of the thread is dropped back to Earth
and then you extend a lot of new threads climbing the first one. In the end
you have a thick cable able to hold an space elevator weighting tens of
tones going back and forth Earth surface and GEO.

That is FAR more feasible than all the space elevators proposals found in
science fiction, were people put a carbonaceous asteroid in orbit and then
start building the elevator with the asteroidal materials. Unfortunately,
that is a chicken-and-egg problem: you cannot move an entire asteroid to get
easy access to space because we don't have easy access to space. This clever
solution of the cable 100% "made in Earth" may finally allow the chick to
leave the egg.

Lucio Coelho

From: "Anton Kolonin"
To:
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 9:08 AM
Subject: [Webmind-TLC] Fw: The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality