Space elevator!

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Originally Posted by Doc Holliday

Bush just wants to go to the moon, because someone told him it was made of cheese, and he can't eat tacos without cheese.

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:lol:

I can understand if you're lactose intolerant, but any other person who doesn't like cheese is an idiot.

The idea is nothing new. I think it will happen eventually but i very much doubt 15 years. The media is quick to promise technological advances far sooner than they are likely (or viable) to occur. In the 1960s the media said we could take vacations on the moon by now. Also, just because we can make carbon nanotubes today does not mean we have anywhere near the production capabilities to make enough for an elevator to SPACE. 62,000 miles.

It certainly wouldn't be a target for anybody either, now would it.

Doesn't the moon, like, change it's location as it orbits us? Doesn't the Earth itself rotate? Would there be a small window each day where the elevator would lead to the moon?

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Originally Posted by Chux

It certainly wouldn't be a target for anybody either, now would it.

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This is why we can't have nice things.

Perhaps the elevator will be used merely to get us beyond the Earth's atmosphere and into space, at which point a seperate shuttle can travel the remaining distance to the moon? This way, things become less dangerous, since there's no rocket takeoff, or potentially dangerous re-entry. That, and the fact that, as Mzo points out, both the Earth and moon are not continually in the same place (relative to each other).

I'm gonna go dig a hole to China right now too. Maybe we can install an elevator shaft in the hole I dig so taking trips to china could be had while listening to muzak.

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Originally Posted by cka

I'm gonna go dig a hole to China right now too. Maybe we can install an elevator shaft in the hole I dig so taking trips to china could be had while listening to muzak.

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Maybe. But good luck working through the Earth's core...

:D

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Originally Posted by ChrisM-UK

Perhaps the elevator will be used merely to get us beyond the Earth's atmosphere and into space, at which point a seperate shuttle can travel the remaining distance to the moon? This way, things become less dangerous, since there's no rocket takeoff, or potentially dangerous re-entry. That, and the fact that, as Mzo points out, both the Earth and moon are not continually in the same place (relative to each other).

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That’s was I was thinking when I read the article. Isn't the exit & reentry into our atmosphere the most dangerous parts of space flight at the moment? I just can't see how something this giant could be protected from Terrorists with any amount of certainty. And you know if the world got wind of us building something like this outside of our borders (hell, even inside) there'd be at least a dozen groups bent on taking it out. A project this size would really need a good chunk of the governments on earth working together on it for it to have any chance of succeeding.