It is expected that should a space elevator be completed the structure will drastically reduce the cost of reaching space, finally making large scale projects such as SPS and asteroid mining a distinct possibility. Even so, there are a number of challenges that must be overcome. Join us to discuss everything related to the space elevator.
A few of the many topics that will need to be considered are the base tower, space station, and counter weight. How will the cable be constructed and what materials will be used? What would be the optimal propulsion system and how will the elevators themselves work? And, of course, there are still many other issues that need to be considered.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
Ding, ding, ding...reality check. We only track items down to about 8-10 centimeters in size, and not nearly all of those. You have to detect before you can
We will need an interceptor program ready when the ribbon goes up. The technology recently developed for "Star Wars" could be easily adapted. We already track
Or perhaps a large, pancake-shaped piece of aerogel could be effective at sweeping clean a particular range of orbits with time, if it is orbited retrograde
Since it is unlikely that we will ever have a space elevator in Earth orbit, we need to find other means of accomplishing similar goals. Some sort of rotating