Escape velocity refers to the speed needed to get out of Earth’s gravity well, not the speed needed to achieve orbit. Orbit isn’t about getting so high up you’re weightless. It’s basically about moving so fast gravity can’t pull in a consistent direction.

Bryan Lowder said: “I haven’t read Red Mars, but another excellent book is _Fountains_of_the_Gods_ by Arthur C. Clarke. The book is excellent in technical detail. In this book, he claims diamond tape would do the trick. Also, one failure mode is similar to the Tacoma Narrows bridge disaster– being essentially a long string, some source of energy that hit the right resonance mode would cause vibrations that would build to dangerous amplitudes. As I recall, the vibrations were actually caused by the car going up the cable. The solution was a large counterweight at the orbital end to change the resonant frequency. In the book, Mars was the first to get an elevator, because of the reduced strength requirement. Deimos became a counterweight. To avoid Phobos, the cars were timed to cause the cable to *twang* to one side at just the right moment. Not an engineering solution I would embrace.

The best discussion of this concept I have read is in Robert L. Forward’s book _Future_Magic_. Forward also discusses some really great interim concepts. One, the Launch Loop, could be executed today. Another, the Rotovator, is a stopgap solution between rockets and elevators.
In the Launch Loop, steel bars are accelerated by electromagnetic cannons and tossed into a great arc. On the other end, the bars are caught and re-accelerated. The bars interact magnetically with a pipe structure that encloses them all, and is empty of air. The loop hangs in the air without being strong enough to hold itself up. Coupling a car somehow into the stream would permit one to race to the top and fly off into orbit.
In the Rotavator, a three-spoked wheel with long cables for spokes orbits the Earth. At the same time, it is rotating as though it were “rolling” on the ground. The ends of the cables then execute a motion that essentially dives straight out of the sky. While it hangs there for a few minutes, a high-altitude airplane hooks you up to the end. Then you are jerked up into the sky. At the other end, you are flung off at twice orbital velocity– going anywhere you like. A Kevlar rotovator would be strong enough to operate on the Moon.”

kd5rax you are right! no one should have read your comment!!! are you an idiot or just a trouble maker? “just another name” was not bragging, stupid. he was trying to make the point that for the most part this was above his level of knowledge, but he wanted to be involved in the discussion anyway! I am not the brightest bulb in the pack, (only a 3.5 H.S. gpa) but we all have our strengths. i have friends who are certified geniuses, who come to me when they have a “?” in an area of knowledge i excel in.
Now for my two cents worth on this dead horse! would we not need two of these elevators? or at least a counterweight on the opposite side of the earth? it seems to my little bit of reasoning that it would through off our delicate rotational balance.

Being stuck at the bottom of a gravity well is a little restricting, and in response to the comment about looking after our planet first – im sure that job would be much easier with the cheap reasources that the solar system could offer us, and space based research would potentially offer useful new technologies! like phasers! or not, as the case may be.

Very much enjoyed the discussion around this article, even the silly ones.

The problem i think is that people are using theories, calculations and all kinds of new (nano) and other types of technology to make this elevator work (i won’t bore you with my lack of extensive knowledge on therse things, i don’t know my IQ because i believe their results only show how well that person can do in IQ testing, real life is never about your Intelligence Quotient but more about the wisdom in using what intelligence you have correctly).

Laugh with me on this one, but old tricks are the best tricks, why not use a bigger/better/scientifically-enhanced/more rubbery material and construct a giant slingshot and all the space cadets can ‘shoot up’ without worrying about snow, frost, and orbital whatever-those-forces are. By now we should have had a lunar liftoff station, yes i mentioned lunar as opposed to sayng ‘a station on the moon’, shoot the cadets up in a transportable ‘projectile’ that can be caught or land without killing everybody in it, they jump into space from our lunar base, since its liftoff issues would probably cost next to nothing with our rocket/fuel system and go fix up a planet for us to live in while we carry on stuffing this one up…sorted.

thought-provoking article though…well done

The whole idea makes my skin crawl. I didn’t like the sensation of being on the Seattle Space Needle let alone an elevator to space.Yuck.

Just another name, I have an IQ of 143 :D 1 point from “genius” level *weep*

I feel like I’m time traveling.
NaughtyHorse from 2006 – Calm down ;)
I had the same initial reaction but I can see the math working now as i understand that the cable would have to be much further out than the GS line (geosynchronous orbit) and a weight on the end. A miscalculation could mean that our anchor tears free of the earth and flies off into space – Yes!

My new concerns are these.
1) How would you ever get enough grip on this cable to lift anything of significance up? Any accidental lubricant (ice sounds probable) and you could be in dire straights really fast.

2) By Newtons laws, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, if this mad scheme works, and the force being used (centrifical) would have a force acting against it…essentially slowing down the spin (our rotation). I won’t pretend to have the equations necessary so this could be a VERY insignificant amount. The moon’s pull on the tides is slowing us and the moon down anyway.

3) have you heard of the tower of babel?

Bryan Lowder #3 October 31st, 2005 4:29 pm my neurons are active but your comments are confusing.

[quote]Alchemist said: “Total total crap. I do nanotech, and nanotubes are not going to make this work, no mater how cool they are. (Nor will the flesh eating nanobots run amok). You’ll also need anchors… MASSIVE anchors at both ends or a very rigid structure. Not … going … to … work…”[/quote]

Yea just tell people they are limited and can’t.

Great story. Remember people the details are from “wiki” and problobly wrong.
I am sure that the top of our atmosphere at sub orbit is 100 miles.