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Space Elevator

(neal.fun)
1773 points kaonwarb | 3 comments | 20 Oct 25 04:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.605s | 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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lnsru ◴[20 Oct 25 08:06 UTC] No.45641098[source]▶
Space elevator was the perfect application for carbon nanotubes according my professor few decades ago. I wish humanity could unite for such project and enter space exploration phase. But I feel it will stay sci-fi forever.
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1. tiagod ◴[20 Oct 25 15:37 UTC] No.45645149[source]▶
Thing is, you're going to invest massive amounts of R&D in something that might be impossible, when you could invest in actually building stuff in space so you only need to shoot humans out there.
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2. floxy ◴[20 Oct 25 21:50 UTC] No.45649881[source]▶
Instead of massive amounts of R&D, why not small amounts for the next 100 years? Seems like this is something a tech bro could bequeath to humanity, Nobel style. A $250 million fund that pay out $10 million per year in grants. And maybe some larger chunks when the board of directors sees a good opportunity to do larger scale trials.
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3. tiagod ◴[21 Oct 25 10:53 UTC] No.45654422[source]▶
I'm pretty sure we've invested way more than $250m in carbon nanotubes.