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Space Elevator

(neal.fun)
1773 points kaonwarb | 1 comments | 20 Oct 25 04:42 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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isgb ◴[20 Oct 25 12:46 UTC] 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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seanc ◴[20 Oct 25 13:12 UTC] No.45643508[source]▶
Kim Stanley Robinson's description of a Martian space elevator falling and wrapping twice around the entire planet convinced me that they aren't a good idea.

https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/clarke

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enraged_camel ◴[20 Oct 25 13:47 UTC] No.45643883[source]▶
A version of this also happens in the first season of Foundation, the Apple TV series based on Asimov's novels.
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joenot443 ◴[20 Oct 25 14:21 UTC] No.45644219{3}[source]▶
Would you recommend that show to the HN crowd? The books are super well liked around here, for good reason.

Apple's put out a staggering amount of content the last few years, I wasn't even aware this one debuted!

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1. hermitcrab ◴[20 Oct 25 15:06 UTC] No.45644791{4}[source]▶
It's about 45 years since I read the books, but the whole idea of being able to predict the future of human societies accurately with maths seems rather silly. Especially since chaos theory became mainstream.