Computer Science Canada

elevator to space
Author:  Tony [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 9:34 am ]
Post subject:  elevator to space
Some guys from New Mexico got this crazy idea to build an elevator to space. The basic idea here is to stretch a wire made out of carbon nanotubes about 100,000km up and have solarpowered crawlers pull satalites up Confused

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Author:  Dan [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 11:05 am ]
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i dont think that is posable but it will be funny as hell to wach then try Twisted Evil
Author:  rizzix [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 3:05 pm ]
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no, dan it is possible.. but it would be funny for them to try..

have u heard of the starwars project? (which was supposed to be take on a couple of years ago.. but they did not proceed since the main objective behind the project was achieved)

basically the starwars project was to build a sphere of copper pins around the world. that reached far into the depths of the sky. it wil help them detect a missile being shot from any part of the world in seconds, and thus they could counter attack will 1000 decoys and 1 genuine back at the tarted. it would have cost them trillions! but they were ready to do it, just to compete against Soviet Union. Now the soviet union could not manage to match the threat of the US so they decided to give up their arms etc.. US won. BTW this was during/after the cold war.
Author:  Catalyst [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 6:37 pm ]
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wasnt star wars just space-based anit-missle lasers?
Author:  Tony [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:17 pm ]
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Catalyst wrote:
wasnt star wars just space-based anit-missle lasers?


thats what I though to... some way to ether blow up incomming missiles, or make them drop on Canada instead Confused
Author:  Mazer [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:23 pm ]
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no, no, no, you've got it all wrong. star wars, that was a long time ago guys, in fact, it wasn't even in this galaxy. it was in a different galaxy, far, far away! you fools! anti-missiles? nobody used missiles! it was all about the proton torpedos baby! except for the concussion missiles... ok nevermind. Razz
Author:  Dan [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 9:23 pm ]
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i realy dont think it whould be posable, think about it. you whould need a sturcher that could lift a satalites. now to make a strucher strong enogth to sport that wegth of it being lifted 100,000km whould need a very very very big XSA (crose sectoial area). now if you had an object with a XSA that big you whould have serveral problems; 1. the heat genrealted by it whould be so hot that it whould strat messing stuff, 2. the mass of the srucher whould break thougth the ground and fall over, 3. the amount of mearales alone to make shuch a thing whould be amazing.

now if you could make such a sturch and have it not over heat or fall over you whould have problems with gravitalion pull. with normal sized objects the difrence whould not make a dif but with somting 100,000km high that would be lifting things in to obribit you whould have forcre of gavrity pulling it arpart in a few difrent ways. now if you solve that some way wich whould be amaizing you whould then have problems with it being the bigest ligthing rod in this sorale system. you whould be geting so much power pown that thing that you could probly power a few citys. if that was not engothg there whould be tones of things runing in to it, planes, seatiyes, ect. and the mass big ength to do this whould strat making a gratialn pull of it's own and that whould not be nice ether.

i still got more reasons why this thing will not wrok but i dont think any one is reading this any more so i will just shut up. Twisted Evil
Author:  Tony [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:34 pm ]
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dan - they gonna build a carbon nanotube... Its super strong, has a very tiny cross section, and carbon does not conduct electricity.
Author:  Catalyst [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:34 pm ]
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ive heard of a idea to use a nanotube tether up to geosync orbit and attach it to a asteroid orbiting there which would keep the tether tight
might be a but dangerous maneuvering an asteroid into close orbit Confused
Author:  Asok [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:49 pm ]
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it's horribly inefficient, too many what if's, what if it gets damaged by debry? the cable snaps and the satelite crashes down on earth. YAY! Rolling Eyes

also the cost to repair that bitch would be rediculous
Author:  Homer_simpson [ Tue Oct 14, 2003 11:06 pm ]
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hahahahahahaaaa!!! good one!
i think mexicans have better things to do with their money Laughing
Author:  Andy [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 10:44 am ]
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they're never gonna build it... and its new mexico homer, thats in America...
Author:  octopi [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:07 pm ]
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Earths rotation alone would cause massive forces against it...the thing wouldn't stand.

....I hope they insure the thing...imagine if it fell.....alot of damage...ALOT. Like...falls...and its gonna hit something...or alot of somethings....
Author:  Catalyst [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:12 pm ]
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the one i heard of they would build of the western coast of mexico or s.america so that if the counter weight detached it would fall into the pacific ocean
Author:  PaddyLong [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:01 pm ]
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Catalyst wrote:
the one i heard of they would build of the western coast of mexico or s.america so that if the counter weight detached it would fall into the pacific ocean


we certainly wouldn't want it falling onto our houses and office buildings and wendy's although it would be a shame if it fell into the ocean ... I hope they move the boats from under where it will land first though.


could you imagine what it would be like driving by that thing on the highway or something.... it would just look like some really tall structure that goes through the clouds with a building at the bottom... hmm I wonder if they would have it set up like a military base type of thing and if they would allow tours
Author:  Mazer [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:18 pm ]
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i'm not sure whether or not this is possible (and frankly, i don't care enough to research it Wink) but i must agree it would be pretty damn cool to see something just rising up into space.

... or not. for some reason i can't imagine it as an elevator. i can only imagine it as a huge dark tower, like minas morgul. **cue the nazgul**
Author:  Tony [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:28 pm ]
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well it will be a huge black tower build out of carbon just raising up into the skies.

as for the elevator part... so called "crawlers" will climb up that tube, so it's not a traditional elevator - its more of a cable into the skies to climb up
Author:  Dan [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 10:54 pm ]
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this has got to be one of the dumest things i have ever hured of, and i have hured alot of realy dum stuff form the peoleop at my old school.
Author:  Catalyst [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 11:02 pm ]
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i like the idea Very Happy
people have been throwing ideas around like this for a while
its nice to see a group trying to achieve this goal realistically
even so, this will probably never happen anytime soon
Author:  rizzix [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 11:07 pm ]
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not that it's impossible.

so let's hope they do it. and i mean it.

it would be one of those unrealistic ideas that actually took off.

i mean specially if the cost of sending things to space through the elevator is less than that of sending it through a rocket!

and not only that.. we could probably get tours. Also, maybe later in the future, we could have like a bespin city up there cool eh?
Author:  Dan [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 11:14 pm ]
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it's not posable!!!!!!

the gravtion forces alone whould mess it. not to mention that it if there was any conduive meateral on it at all it whould chage the polarity of the earth and kill us all.
Author:  rizzix [ Wed Oct 15, 2003 11:16 pm ]
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well one guy did it by just standing in a hot air balloon!

i'm not sure how he got back, but one thing is for sure.. he was pretty much charcoaled when he returned!


NOTE: i'm hoping the bespin city idea takes off some time in the near future.. i wanna see such a thing before i die. Laughing

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