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Space Elevator

(neal.fun)
1773 points kaonwarb | 1 comments | 20 Oct 25 04:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.356s | source
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tempestn ◴[20 Oct 25 06:49 UTC] No.45640679[source]▶
TIL it's estimated that over 48 tons of meteors hit the atmosphere every day.

Regarding actual space elevators though, while they're not sci-fi to the extent of something like FTL travel - ie. they're technically not physically impossible - they're still pretty firmly in the realm of sci-fi. We don't have anything close to a cable that could sustain its own weight, let alone that of whatever is being elevated. Plus, how do you stabilize the cable and lifter in the atmosphere?

A space elevator on the moon is much more feasible: less gravity, slow rotation, no atmosphere, less dangerous debris. But it's also much less useful.

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1. metalman ◴[20 Oct 25 10:58 UTC] No.45642489[source]▶
thing is we do have materials strong enough, because as it turns out the issue with strength is in flaws between indivual molecules in any given material, not so much the type of material, and very small amples with perfect molecular bonds are plenty strong, but getting consistent perfect molecular bonds is the challenge, and if this can be done, other technologys ,such as vacume ballons will be possible, such as flying citys to go with the space rlevators