From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Mon Aug 12 2002 - 17:42:30 MDT
On Monday, August 12, 2002 5:29 PM Charles Hixson
charleshixsn@earthlink.net wrote:
> I suspect that he is talking about using buckytubes as the
construction
> material.
Pretty much. See http://www.highliftsystems.com Also, see the FAQ at
See http://www.highliftsystems.com
> If so, I believe that he is over-optomistic.
I believe so too, but I know I'm overpessimistic, so I don't know where
the truth is here.:)
> I'd put the
> time-frame as more like 5-10 years before construction could start.
That seems much more realistic. I think he should be actively promoting
every other possible use for nanotubes -- ones we have right now -- to
try to get to the point where the technology is tested and developed so
that a space elevator is just another application.
> Early design work could start now, but it would be a mistake to
invest
> much before we know just how long a buckytube can be built, how many
> layers we can get on each tube, etc. And, of course, what the final
> characteristics are. I don't think that we can really generalize from
> the current lab products. It could be either a lot better or a lot
> worse than we know. (Do buckytubes in the presence of Ozone turn into
> CO2 when irradiated with UV? We'd better know the answer not only to
> this question, but to a lot of others before the plans are too
detailed.)
Also, there is a space elevator egroup at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/space-elevator/ for those interested.
There's a lot of discussion the practical issues -- even stuff like
non-nanotech space elevators and the more mundane but probably more
doable space tethers. (Someone recently brought up the idea of a space
hula-hoop. This would be a cable that rings the Earth in LEO. Neat
idea, no?)
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
See my dated "For a Free Frontier: The Case for Space Colonization"
at:
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/SpaceCol.html
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