If space elevators work out the way the idea's advocates hope, sending payloads into orbit would become as routine as, say, sending a shipment on a freight train - except that the train would travel straight up for hundreds or thousands of miles, powered by laser beams.
But will such a "railroad to the sky" ever be built? That's the big question hanging over the 2008 Space Elevator Conference, taking place this weekend on Microsoft's Seattle-area campus. And considering that this is an event primarily attended by elevator enthusiasts, you may find some of the answers surprising.
One of the biggest advocates of the concept, the late science-fiction seer Arthur C. Clarke, said back in 1979 that the first space elevator would be built "about 50 years after everyone stops laughing."
There wasn't much laughing to be heard as the talks got under way today at Microsoft's Redmond conference center (which happens to be a five-minute walk from my newsroom at msnbc.com, a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture). Instead, there was a long day's worth of serious talks about way-out subjects such as orbital debris threats and power-beaming lasers.
And there were a lot of predictions: On one end of the scale, Bradley Edwards, president of New York-based Black Line Ascension and one of the pioneers of the space elevator movement, said creating a space elevator would require much less time than 50 years - as long as you had $7 billion to $10 billion to spend.
"It's really a cost issue," he told me. "If you could get the money, you could have one up in probably 12 years, 15 years."
TOloseGT wrote:i saw a nova documentary about it, apparently, the kinda technology needed to power the elevator and the materials needed aren't available right now.
That was what the conference was about, and that documentary was before the conference too. many things change.
98% of the teenage population put something gay like "98% of the teenage population will try, does or has tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this into your signature.". If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this into your signature.
Disconn3cted wrote:could an elevator going into space have some kind of effect on the earths orbit?
No, It is not large enough and it is also connected to the earth. but if what ever at the end is large enough it just might, but it would have to be VERY large.
*runs off to buy a ticket to space*
