Japanese construction giant Obayashi announces plans to have a space elevator up and running by 2050 - Polidicks

2050 seems very optimistic.

[QUOTE=SirLemon;46048498]That other guy brought up a good point, what if it falls? That could kill thousands, destroy chunks of the world, etc etc. Why do we even need a space elevator? There's nothing worthwhile in space as of right now. Until technology can reach the point where we can easily leave the solar system, there's no point.[/QUOTE] Nothing worthwhile in space right now because it's hard as fuck to get stuff into space to build? So we need the elevator. Christ I'm usually pessimistic about stuff but think about it

[QUOTE=Baron von Hax;46048309]As cool as this is, why?[/QUOTE] Because getting stuff into orbit easily would be pretty useful. [editline]22nd September 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=spectator1;46048684]Not possible and the worst case scenario its going to get hit by a comet or whatever space rock. 7 days to go up and 7 days to go down also sounds ridiculous me time works in mysterious ways i guess.[/QUOTE] Super possible, all we need to be able to do is create long strands of carbon nanotubes and Japan has a ton of teams working on that.

[QUOTE=SirLemon;46048498]That other guy brought up a good point, what if it falls? That could kill thousands, destroy chunks of the world, etc etc. Why do we even need a space elevator? There's nothing worthwhile in space as of right now. Until technology can reach the point where we can easily leave the solar system, there's no point.[/QUOTE] What if by sailing over the horizon we fall off the edge of the world and lose an entire boat load of sailors? [editline]23rd September 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=GammaFive;46048784]That feel when being an old man by the time any of this happens, if it happens, and if I make it that far.[/QUOTE] Stuff like this tends to accelerate, with these guys setting the precedent for building a space elevator people will also get the idea for it, and 40 years is a long deadline. If someone can finish a space elevator before then they'll get in on the boom early so to speak. Maybe this'll trigger some actual effort and we'll go to space.

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;46048558]It's more realistic than some estimates. However, 7 days to get to space is a bit much, unless the payload is something huge.[/QUOTE] compared to the months of raising funds and getting so little payload with rockets, its definitely worth it.

[QUOTE=Cabbage;46048280]I hope they chose damn good elevator music[/QUOTE] [video=youtube;maPSi0qku_0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maPSi0qku_0[/video]

[video=youtube;vYdtNhtu0FQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYdtNhtu0FQ[/video] Sorry for the awful quality, was the only video I could find.

Wonder what the price tag will be.

It has to be flexible enough to deal with the major swaying, but also stiff enough to not fall over. It's the same dilemma God had when designing my divine phallus.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;46048369]Not possible I think.[/QUOTE] I don't think it's possible to build a space elevator with current tech and industry even with carbon nanotubes and other wonder materials; you'd have to have factories pumping out the shit for [I]decades[/I] to get enough material.

[QUOTE=Saber15;46049483]I don't think it's possible to build a space elevator with current tech and industry even with carbon nanotubes and other wonder materials; you'd have to have factories pumping out the shit for [I]decades[/I] to get enough material.[/QUOTE] Don't need much material if it's inflated like a penis.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;46048595]Gets hit by a shooting star and you're left with possibly the worlds most expensive disaster[/QUOTE] The chance of a random object randomly hitting a thin cord is effectively nill. If something ever hits it it can be assumed with practically 100% accuracy that someone aimed for it.

I wonder how it would even get up into space without something happening in the meantime. I mean, It's gonna be really huge and heavy before it can support itself.

[QUOTE=Bokito;46049506]I wonder how it would even get up into space without something happening in the meantime. I mean, It's gonna be really huge and heavy before it can support itself.[/QUOTE] Not if you go up first and lower the cord down.

this would be even better for launching space probes since all you have to do is get to the top, and let it out of the "bottom" of the space station, it'd be flung out at earth escape velocity at that point

[QUOTE=SirLemon;46048498]That other guy brought up a good point, what if it falls? That could kill thousands, destroy chunks of the world, etc etc. Why do we even need a space elevator? There's nothing worthwhile in space as of right now. Until technology can reach the point where we can easily leave the solar system, there's no point.[/QUOTE] If it's severed near the base it'll shoot out of the atmosphere into orbit. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZAHq_QADog[/media] Halo ODST had a pretty realistic depiction

one question i have about this is, how the hell do you get it up there? i mean you can't just build it straight, which means you have to have a station and some kind of cable assembly system, but then how do you lower a cable to earth from space and how do you go about doing that without pulling the entire station down from atmospheric drag obviously building a station at geosyncronus orbit would be the only solution but that doesn't work out because it requires like 3x the material and the forces exceed carbon nanotubes, building it in LEO is better because you can also avoid space junk higher up but then there's still the problem of atmospheric drag durring construction.

[QUOTE=Sableye;46049546]one question i have about this is, how the hell do you get it up there? i mean you can't just build it straight, which means you have to have a station and some kind of cable assembly system, but then how do you lower a cable to earth from space?[/QUOTE] by turning the fucking winch

[QUOTE=Sableye;46049546]one question i have about this is, how the hell do you get it up there? i mean you can't just build it straight, which means you have to have a station and some kind of cable assembly system, but then how do you lower a cable to earth from space?[/QUOTE] Well in the book "The Fountains of paradise" he explained they had to build it from both ways exactly simultaneously. That is the pace they build up must be the same as the pace they build down. This I think was after the initial main cable was connected from the anchor to the earth.

[QUOTE=Sprockethead;46049500]The chance of a random object randomly hitting a thin cord is effectively nill. If something ever hits it it can be assumed with practically 100% accuracy that someone aimed for it.[/QUOTE] What about cases where people get hit by meteors? Like this lady, [URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/02/130220-russia-meteorite-ann-hodges-science-space-hit/"]Ann Hodges.[/URL] Who aimed at her? An alien? [t]http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/644/cache/person-struck-by-meteorite-ann-hodges_64484_990x742.jpg[/t] And I remember hearing about some cows getting killed by a meteorite at some point in time... My point is... if things like this can happen, even as rare as once every hundred years, then an object as large as a space elevator is bound to get hit. Especially if it's going to be in used for a long time.

[QUOTE=Kardia;46049684]What about cases where people get hit by meteors? Like this lady, [URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/02/130220-russia-meteorite-ann-hodges-science-space-hit/"]Ann Hodges.[/URL] Who aimed at her? An alien? [t]http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/644/cache/person-struck-by-meteorite-ann-hodges_64484_990x742.jpg[/t] And I remember hearing about some cows getting killed by a meteorite at some point in time... My point is... if things like this can happen, even as rare as once every hundred years, then an object as large as a space elevator is bound to get hit. Especially if it's going to be in used for a long time.[/QUOTE] So you armor it up, give it some big plates on the side or just have shit in the area to melt any wee meteors.

[QUOTE=Kardia;46049684]What about cases where people get hit by meteors? Like this lady, [URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/02/130220-russia-meteorite-ann-hodges-science-space-hit/"]Ann Hodges.[/URL] Who aimed at her? An alien? [t]http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/644/cache/person-struck-by-meteorite-ann-hodges_64484_990x742.jpg[/t] And I remember hearing about some cows getting killed by a meteorite at some point in time... My point is... if things like this can happen, even as rare as once every hundred years, then an object as large as a space elevator is bound to get hit. Especially if it's going to be in used for a long time.[/QUOTE] well the station could manuver and a dedicated ground support team could track everything comming at it, if the station moves left or right like a few feet at a time it'll move the cable out of the way of debris really quickly

[QUOTE=bravehat;46049719]So you armor it up, give it some big plates on the side or just have shit in the area to melt any wee meteors.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Sableye;46049769]well the station could manuver[/QUOTE] Yeah I'm sure they've thought about it.

[QUOTE=SirLemon;46048498]That other guy brought up a good point, what if it falls? That could kill thousands, destroy chunks of the world, etc etc. Why do we even need a space elevator? There's nothing worthwhile in space as of right now. Until technology can reach the point where we can easily leave the solar system, there's no point.[/QUOTE] It won't "fall". Either the upper part of the elevator gets "sucked" into space, and floats away, or it enters orbit and will burn on reentry. As for the question of "why", let's be honest, we need to expand into space. But why wait until we have anti-gravity engines and androids? We have the technology to start the colonization of space. Primitive technology, sure, but ey, America wasn't discovered on metal ships powered by steam.

[QUOTE=Saber15;46049533]If it's severed near the base it'll shoot out of the atmosphere into orbit. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZAHq_QADog[/media] Halo ODST had a pretty realistic depiction[/QUOTE] Man, that would be a sight to see.

I hope this happens, but every other science fiction promise of the past 50 years has failed almost without exception, so I find it hard to be optimistic.

[QUOTE=Sableye;46049531]this would be even better for launching space probes since all you have to do is get to the top, and let it out of the "bottom" of the space station, it'd be flung out at earth escape velocity at that point[/QUOTE] No, the elevator station sits at a geosynchronous orbit. If you drop a probe out the bottom, all it will do is orbit the earth for eternity above the same spot. The reason we use an elevator for space probes is so that it takes minimal effort to get out of the system, it doesn't quite do all the work for us.

How the fuck are they going to actually erect the structure when it's built? :v:

Bad things happened to the space elevator in the Mars trilogy, just saying.

Now the US has to build one. It is important to have a strong military foothold in space.