Japanese Construction Company Plans to Have Space Elevator Working by 2050

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
What about space junk? Wouldn't it fly right through any elevator? And by 2050 there will be a lot more floating around up there.

I would still probably take the ride lol but it seems dangerous.

Carbon nanotubes are really durable, so the space junk isn't problem. Also the elevator isn't very big, the line would be really thin, because carbon nanotubes allow durable, but thin construction. The problem is that there is no way creating long enough carbon nanotubes and they are really expensive.

And by 2050 there is probably way to avoid space junk, some kind of kinetic or inertia shielding, if magnets develop.

First I asked myself: what would a 3 centimeter NANOtube look like?
Nano, essentially meaning: smaller then very freaking small. I.o.w.: anything 3 centimeters longcis NOT a nanotube. It's small agreed, but not Nano (because nano is probably a billion times smaller).
Then I wondered...
96000 km thats 96000000 meters divided by 0.03 = 3.2 billion not-so-nano tubes.

a reply to: Daalder

The nano does not refer to the length.

The one thing you could do is to put your reactor in orbit. If something goes wrong, just hit the booster rockets and send it out into deep space or the sun.

No more Fukishima accidents.

P

This planet needs a reset.

Japan is killing the ocean daily, and all it wants to do it make a space elevator??? Cmon son...their island is going to fall into the Pacific after meltdown eats their techtonic plate. They should be figuring out how to stop their nuclear energy project gone wrong. They wont have time to escape in the space elevator with the hell they are bringing down.

a reply to: ArchPlayer

Have you ever considered that the only way we will ever be able to rid ourselves of nuclear waste will be when we can launch that crap at the sun. Currently there is no viable option to dispose of that crap.

originally posted by: BugOut
The biggest question I have on how this will work is, what kind of music do you play in a space elevator? Most of the elevators I am in have terrible music! It is a long elevator ride to space so good music is a must I would think.....just sayin...

Also, I hope they make it so that when I press the call button over and over again quickly, it will make the elevator cab arrive faster.

And PLEASE, no mirrored door. I want to be able to look straight ahead without accidentally making eye contact with the people in there with me. If the inside doors have a mirrored finish, then I have to look up to avoid accidental eye contact, and then I just look like an idiot looking up.

originally posted by: BugOut
The biggest question I have on how this will work is, what kind of music do you play in a space elevator? Most of the elevators I am in have terrible music! It is a long elevator ride to space so good music is a must I would think.....just sayin...

Don't know they may be able to fit a few songs n for each ride I submit this one for consideration.

a reply to: Grimpachi

Or this:

originally posted by: Grimpachi
a reply to: ArchPlayer

Have you ever considered that the only way we will ever be able to rid ourselves of nuclear waste will be when we can launch that crap at the sun. Currently there is no viable option to dispose of that crap.

How about not make it at all? Is that even a consideration. Most countries suppress any type of alternative invention at clean energy. I'm not about to give them a pat on the head and excuse them because they want to hurl something they used to poison the world with for money into space. There are enough issues here without hurling a garbage ball into space.

This looks very cool! We may have a space elevator by 2050! This will be amazing!

It would be awesome if we could go to space on a space elevator!

I dont see why they just dont get some high altitude blimps and string them together in a line going up with new passengers and materials and down to refill with fuel and to get new materials!

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
It would be awesome if we could go to space on a space elevator!

I dont see why they just dont get some high altitude blimps and string them together in a line going up with new passengers and materials and down to refill with fuel and to get new materials!

Balloons can only reach about 20 miles. There would still be much fuel needed to lift the payload from that point to a usable orbit. There are already satellites that are air-launched from the belly of an aircraft (albeit not from 20 miles up), but it still requires rockets and a lot of fuel weight to get to low-earth orbit.

Most ideas for space elevators have it reaching more than 10000X farther than that -- to at least 23000 miles, which is the height of a geostationary orbit.

Using a 20 mile high balloon to help get payloads to high-earth or geostationary orbits of 23,000 miles is not that much different than lifting it from 0 to 23,000 miles.