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Space Elevator

(neal.fun)
1773 points kaonwarb | 2 comments | 20 Oct 25 04:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | 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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gizmo686 ◴[20 Oct 25 14:38 UTC] No.45644414[source]▶
Isn't the entire point of the space elevator to be the ascent/descent mechanism?

Once you have the cable up, you can grab onto it and pull yourself up.

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1. kingkawn ◴[20 Oct 25 15:08 UTC] No.45644815[source]▶
Doesn’t the weight of the cable itself let alone any payload preclude this from becoming real based on all plausible material science
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2. gizmo686 ◴[20 Oct 25 15:14 UTC] No.45644875[source]▶
It's more of the strength-to-weight ratio than just weight. But yes, there is no known material that would work as a cable for a space elevator.