Japan building an elevator into space?, Critics call it a stairway to heaven for the obese! Options

[Whitey]

Here is the full story!

Elevator to the stars!!!

[Type98G]

Here is the full story!

Elevator to the stars!!!

good luck finding resources for this

[Parzifal]

Hm... I always thought the guys with gigantomatic ideas are the russians (cotton fields in the desert, tsar bomba,....)?

The amount of required material would be gigantic. You wouldn't only neeed a simple cable but a structure with power transmission lines which is capable of withstanding the pressure of the flowing atmosphere (there are different currents in the upper layers of the atmosphere), withstanding the temperature stress from the fast-changing temperatures, withstanding the electrical stress generated by the vastly changing potential on the way up (you can see the ionosphere as the outer conductive hull of a capacitor charged by the sun) and one ore more suprises in addition.

PS: Calculate the amount of energy such a long cable would generate if it crashes down to the earth - and remember - the cable is nearly as long as the circumference of the earth!

[BirdFeed]

nothing new.. this idea has been toyed with by the top dogs for years.. the material they want is some sort of steel but isn't steel.. i don't remember all i know it can only be made in labs and it costs $hitloads

another problem will be building it where it's disaster free zone. from what i recall from a documentry i watched awhile ago, they want to build it in some island place where the weather is costant throughout the year. it seems farfetched to me too but how they explained it, it's the most viable thing to do

[mkfk1]

possible in concept, lots of engineering headaches...

i expect a country with excess resoures to build this elevator

[Vinceroni]

Excellent. Next step: Gundams.

[IbanezThep]

wow, 9.4 billion dollars, not too bad i suppose. If they can do it go for it, but it'll probably never affect me in anyway.

[mkfk1]

wow, 9.4 billion dollars, not too bad i suppose. If they can do it go for it, but it'll probably never affect me in anyway.

It makes a big different to everyone. A cheap way to sent objects into space would aloud the construction of mega strutures in space. Imagine giant solar panels to harvest soloar flares, or actual space crafts the size of a football stadium, or a space stations. This can be a high leap and bring us one step closer to solor railway, or space mining.

[BamarMinthar]

Entirely plausible. Did none of you read the article? The biggest challenge is developing new materials. If the cable did snap, I'm sure redundancy systems that utilise air resistance can be added to reduce the energy of the crash and I dont see why power lines are needed if theres a geosynchronous satellite above that can absorb solar power. I've often fantasised about space elevators. Incidentally has anyone seen the manga Cybercity OEDO808?

[Henry123]

I heard alot of theories about it but I dont know if has reach the state where it would be constructed.