Could a space elevator become a future option to get into earth orbit

[Alan McDougall]

Hi,

 

There is now serious speculation that in the next 50 to 100 years, technology would have advanced to the level that space elevators could be constructed, by use of an earth to space tether of maybe very advanced nano ropes that are up to a 1000 times stronger than steel.

 

This idea used to be ridiculed by most of the science community in the past as simply an impossible dream, but now many of them are rethinking the issue,that in the future there would be a serious possibility of developing the advanced technology, to achieve, what was previously believed as laughable science fiction.

[Phi for All]

Here are a few threads to get you started:

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/35342-how-to-build-a-space-elevator/?hl=%2Bspace+%2Belevator

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/28588-space-elevator/?hl=%2Bspace+%2Belevator

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/1605-space-elevator-high-hopes-lofty-goals/?hl=%2Bspace+%2Belevator

 

I think the last one is over 10 years old, it will be interesting to discuss what's new.

[EdEarl]

Carbon nanotubes can be 100 times stronger than steel, but so far they cannot be made very long. Recently a less strong carbon nanotube fiber has been developed. See: http://news.rice.edu/2013/01/10/new-nanotech-fiber-robust-handling-shocking-performance-2/

 

Rice University’s latest nanotechnology breakthrough was more than 10 years in the making, but it still came with a shock. Scientists from Rice, the Dutch firm Teijin Aramid, the U.S. Air Force and Israel’s Technion Institute this week unveiled a new carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber that looks and acts like textile thread and conducts electricity and heat like a metal wire. In this week’s issue of Science, the researchers describe an industrially scalable process for making the threadlike fibers, which outperform commercially available high-performance materials in a number of ways.