Space Elevators

Space elevators are one of those projects that true believers think
mankind's space efforts cannot even begin without. They fear, as the Mars
colony camp do, that any creedence given to a theory other than theirs will
give what little investment and research given to space enterprizes will go
to someone else, so they are sure to make their idea seem like the only one
that can work.

Back in the 19th century, science fiction writers and theorists were
convinced practical powered flight couldn't happen without some sort of
anti-gravity device. We figured out how to beat it with brute force. By
the same token, there's no need to build an elevator to space any more than
there's an absolute need to build a railroad across the Pacific Ocean (which
in itself has some supporters, via a route across the Bering Strait). Not
to say it's impossible, just not truly neccessary at this stage. If such a
thing gets built, I see it happening as a test on a lower gravity body
first, like Mars or the Moon, before we risk something that potentially
dangerous on Earth, and it'll probably be a few hundred years into the
development of off-world habitation rather than at the beginning.

-Al

On 2/4/06, Dan Wylie-Sears wrote: