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Space Elevator: The Ambitious Dream by Obayashi Corp.

chldudghks0517

Black Rooster
21 Oct 2012
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Hi guys, I'm new to JREF and I would like to kick off my first day by posting something interesting - interesting enough to catch your attention and trigger your imagination (hopefully). :)

I came across this news article (on February) about a Japanese company, Obayashi Corp, planning on something really ambitious: a space elevator.

Did I say that correctly? Yes. A space elevator.

So, this Obayashi Corp is thinking of building an elevator that connects to a space station (there are a few stations already dispatched in outer space). They are thinking of making this space elevator with nanotubes which are very small and light, though they are not the perfect candidates because of their expensive price tag.

They say the purpose of doing this is (not to rip off people but) to transport real humans to outer space, lead them into the space station and conduct laboratory researches there. More details can be found on this article.

Who knows, this can become a commercial application (then they would really be ripping off people!)?

So, what do you think? Is this overly futuristic (too unrealistic) or feasible enough?

My standpoint is, considering the pace at which technological advancements are being made - which has never been faster and it's going to get even faster (I sound redundant) - and the level of intelligence that we will be achieving at some point in the future, I think this space elevator is possible, feasible if you will, in the not-so-far-away future, but of course not any time soon.

Or wait, is this another stupid marketing gibberish to show off how cool they are? Hope not. :>
 
The concept of a space elevator played a role in my first novel :)

But I don't expect to see one in 2050. You never know, I suppose, but there are extreme challenges that need to be overcome.
Carbon nanotubes may sound like they're a solution for the required strength of the cable, but no one knows how to make them longer than even a few centimeters yet. Then there's the problem of connecting the cable onto a space station. A cable like that will weigh millions of metric tons after all. It could be constructed down from the spacestation, but that would require insane amounts of fuel to bring up the raw materials.

Then, travellers will need to cross the "Von Allen belt", a dangerous layer of charged particles around earth, which is not only very unhealthy due to the radiation, if magnetic forces are used to travel along the cable, the charged particles, themselves generating a magnetic field, may interfere with it. In a conventional spacecraft, the crew is only exposed to it for a few seconds, but a climber will probably need close to an hour to pass through.

And what about the weather, lightning strikes and hurricanes and the like. What will happen when the cable passes through electrically charged clouds? Also, the differences in temperature the cable will be exposed to, will cause it to vary quite a bit in length.

Economically, we're talking about a huge investment; just like the technical challenges are unparallelled, so are the economic challenges. We're talking percentages of world GDP here.

Just to name a few problems that readily come to mind. Still, I am glad to see people are starting to take it seriously, if only for the scientific knowledge that can be gained. The carbon nanotubes for example, could have many industrial applications.
 
re: wardibald...What novel? Sounds cool! (I know other SciFi writers have played with the idea. Was it Clarke?) Anyway, it is feasible, but as Wardibald said, there are some massive technical hurdles to overcome. Still, go back 100 years and try convincing people that you'd be able to see and talk with anyone, whereever they may be on the planet. (i.e. Try explaining Skype.)
 
well i would say 30 years ago the concept was quite popular in sci-fi (star trek etc)

As for a space elevator. NO. It's impossible
 
re: wardibald...What novel? Sounds cool!

It is in fact very cool, if I may say so myself :)
However, it is written in Dutch. I am about as famous as the average pavement stone near you, so a translation will have to come from my end. It counts 594 pages and I have started a new project that takes up most of my free time. So I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you...
But never say never ;)
 
I think it was Arthur C. Clark who first dreamed up the idea of a space elevator almost fifty years ago. It's just theory for the near future, as we don't have materials light and strong enough to build the cable. Wardbald makes some good points. Since the biggest cost to space travel is in climbing out of earth's gravity well, the elevator would make going anywhere in space much cheaper -- if we can ever build one.

Radiation is a big concern for anyone in space. The cosmos is full of charged high-energy particles. Most are blocked by earth's atmosphere, especially the ozone layer. But once you're above the atmosphere, radiation shielding becomes a big concern. Even flying on a commercial jet at 30,000 feet exposes you to several times as much radiation as a medical X-ray.

Any manned mission to Mars will have to include better shielding, since the astronauts will be exposed for a couple of years.
 
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