Japan Looking Into Space Elevator Construction
Monday 22 September 2008 @ 12:35 pm | By Chris 'Taco' Martinkovic 7 Comments
In their ongoing quest to destroy the line between science fiction and reality, scientists in Japan have come together to bring the longed Space Elevator into reality. Times Online reports:
Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator. Man has so far conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the final frontier.
Japan is increasingly confident that its sprawling academic and industrial base can solve those issues, and has even put the astonishingly low price tag of a trillion yen (£5 billion) on building the elevator. Japan is renowned as a global leader in the precision engineering and high-quality material production without which the idea could never be possible.
Naturally, the feasibility of such a project is called into question, and more importantly, what would it attach to? Even a handful of the Sci-Fi anime and manga this device has appeared in have addressed issues in the safety of a Space Elevator in catastrophic events such as terrorist attacks or earthquakes. I’d like to see this happen, but I’m not exactly sure if I’d feel comfortable riding in it. Safety issues and such are sure to be a topic of discussion when Japan hosts an international conference on the project in November.
[Times Online via Slashdot]
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Abraham 'Velcor' Duarte
David 'KidKobun' Bruno
Ivan 'Nahu' Lozano
Random J
Sol
This is amazing! Quite exciting, too. I’m ecstatic to see positive motion towards fulfilling our potential as a species. Gotta strive for that type I civilization, right?
And… from what I understand, the elevator doesn’t attach to anything… you just go up it when there’s going to be something at the other end, or simply to get something into orbit without using all that fuel.
Also from what I understand, it’s no less safe than our current methods, and possibly much safer, due to not having to deal with the problem of achieving escape velocity and the process of safely reentering the atmosphere.
In any case, this is very good to hear, and would be a significant step towards a permanent human presence on the moon! And from there… who knows!
Sweet. Now I wonder if they’re going to attach a big solar array at the end of it.
so are we still sending ladders and duct tape?
One word:
SCIENCE
Am I the only one that has wondered if the thing will snap off as the Earth spins? Or do I need to go back and read my physics book?
I think you’d need a gigantic rotating magnet to stabilize this thing. Even then like Link, there are numerous factors that just make this improbable.
@Vek: SCIENCE -fiction
I was actually reading about this four years ago. They would need some sort of super steel or titanium in order to even think about building this.