Carbon Nanotubes and the Space Elevator.

[flux_29]

I was watching BBC4's Visions of the future, and was wondering what everyone else thinks about the idea of using carbon nanotubes to as the teather between the elevator's ground base and the counter weight. Among other things conected with the 'S.E' project.

Some links:
Link - space.com
Link - space.com 2

Carbon nanotubes

 

[Brent]

I think it is great, I'd love to see this become a reality in my lifetime.

 

[Ronald Held]

A good idea, but I do not how long it would take to become a reality.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Can you imagine the Muzak on that sucker?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Babaganoosh said:
Can you imagine the Muzak on that sucker?

Stairway to Heaven -- Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[M'Sharak]

Deuterostome said:

Babaganoosh said:
Can you imagine the Muzak on that sucker?

Stairway to Heaven -- Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Worse: 62,000 miles of Kenny G.

Learn the real meaning of eternity.

 

[flux_29]

^ It would probably show movies, and have seats.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I hope it wouldn't have windows, though. I'm afraid of heights as it is; the shock of looking out the window, thousands of miles up, would probably kill me.

And don't even get me started on how tempting these things would be for a terrorist attack or something like that.

 

[M'Sharak]

flux_29 said:
^ It would probably show movies, and have seats.

Yeah. It'd be a lot like modern air travel, from the passenger's perspective.


Baba: http://shop.advanceweb.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=4300

Babaganoosh said:

And don't even get me started on how tempting these things would be for a terrorist attack or something like that.

Nope, not going there.

 

[TerriO]

M´Sharak said:

Babaganoosh said:

And don't even get me started on how tempting these things would be for a terrorist attack or something like that.

Nope, not going there.

Thank you. We could go on for weeks about how anything can be a terrorist target.

So, let's not and say we did.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

For hauling cargo, these things would be very useful. Passengers, not so sure. How would they counter the G-forces?

 

[flux_29]

Babaganoosh said:
For hauling cargo, these things would be very useful. Passengers, not so sure. How would they counter the G-forces?

It's not a rocket. more like a fast elevator/lift that's bigger than a house.

 

[ITL]

I wonder how fast it would progress up the line and how long the journey would take. I'd love to look out of a window as I ascended - imagine that!

 

[All Seeing Eye]

We can only just make nanotubes an inch long never mind long enough to reach space and the cost of building this tether is enough to collapse a countries economy, if it does become possible its gunna be at least in 150 years time.

 

[farmkid]

The cable would be made of carbon nanotubes in some sort of resin to make a ribbon, not single nanotubes long enough to reach space. The idea is to make the ribbon, launch it into geosynchronous orbit, then simultaneously unspool it back to earth and further out into space. That ribbon will be attached to the surface of Earth and climbers will climb up it with more ribbon to make a wider ribbon. The climbers will stay at the end of the ribbon to add weight. The last time I read about it (a couple of years ago) engineers were still working on the nanotube composite material to make something strong enough do the job. At the time, they were about half way there.

 

[Christopher]

Babaganoosh said:
And don't even get me started on how tempting these things would be for a terrorist attack or something like that.

It's not that great a problem if you make the counterweight on the top big enough. See, you keep tension on the thing with a counterweight that's rotating faster than the orbital speed at its altitude, so that its natural tendency is to pull outward away from the Earth. If a terrorist attack or accident or something were to sever the cable near the ground, then the rest of the elevator would drift upward away from the surface. At worst, it would just hover in place, probably slowly bobbing up and down, since the center of mass of the elevator is in geosynchronous orbit.

Of course, if it were severed in space, somewhere below the center of mass, then you'd have a problem.

 

[Ariadne]

farmkid said:
The cable would be made of carbon nanotubes in some sort of resin to make a ribbon, not single nanotubes long enough to reach space. The idea is to make the ribbon, launch it into geosynchronous orbit, then simultaneously unspool it back to earth and further out into space. That ribbon will be attached to the surface of Earth and climbers will climb up it with more ribbon to make a wider ribbon. The climbers will stay at the end of the ribbon to add weight. The last time I read about it (a couple of years ago) engineers were still working on the nanotube composite material to make something strong enough do the job. At the time, they were about half way there.

Even so, making carbon nanotubes is very expensive.

 

[Christopher]

Toresica said:
Even so, making carbon nanotubes is very expensive.

Right now, yeah. But they're developing new techniques all the time.

Besides, blasting rockets into space is really expensive, and they aren't reusable. Once an elevator were built, it would be a far more economical way of getting into space than rockets could ever be. It would swiftly pay for itself.

 

[Ronald Held]

if would be useful if you had a factory in space making the nanotubes, and finding a suitable asteroid for the raw materials and the counterweight

 

[broberfett]

Doesn't all carbon burn? Even diamonds?