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Space Elevator

(neal.fun)
1773 points kaonwarb | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.302s | source
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isgb ◴[] No.45643283[source]
> Space elevators are actually a possible idea being considered by scientists. > The hard part is making a strong enough cable. And finding enough elevator music...

Most engineers would bring up a lot more issues than just finding a strong cable. Also, most attempts with e.g. carbon nanotubes have been abandoned ages ago https://www.newscientist.com/article/2093356-carbon-nanotube....

- We don't have a good ascent mechanism other than rockets - and then we might just use rockets without building an elevator. - We don't have a good (and safe) descent mechanism. - Maintenance? Protection from space debris? Protection from oscillations? Ground-protection if the elevator collapses?

This is dyson-sphere level of fiction. We can do back-of-the-napkin calcualtions on how things would work, but the practicalities make it completely impossible or impractical.

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bombcar ◴[] No.45643478[source]
All we have to do is make the global religion require bringing a rock to a specific location; after long enough we’ll have a mountain so high it extends out of the atmosphere!
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1. rigmarole ◴[] No.45644610[source]
Related and recommended: Greg Egan “Phoresis” a sci-fi novel of two twin planets in extreme proximity to each other. (I think I read it in one of his anthologies.)