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Space Elevator

neal.fun

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Re: Space Elevator

#151

Post by kubanczyk »

bombcar wrote: post #147
isgb wrote: post #133

> Space elevators are actually a possible idea being considered by scientists. > The hard part is making a strong enough cable. And finding enough elevator music... Most engineers would bring up a lot more issues than just finding a strong cable. Also, most attempts with e.g. carbon nanotubes have been abandoned ages ago https://www.newscientist.com/article/2093356-carbon-nanotube... . - We don't have a good ascent m…

All we have to do is make the global religion require bringing a rock to a specific location; after long enough we’ll have a mountain so high it extends out of the atmosphere!

This presents a considerable risk of splitting English into several languages, none of them intelligible with the others.

Re: Space Elevator

#152

Post by lproven »

officehero wrote: post #22
retube wrote: post #9

Was hoping would go to geostationary orbit as an actual space elevator would :)

Such a lost opportunity, was hoping for another "space is massive" experience like already done in similar interactive maps.

The thing is, the same author has already done that.

https://neal.fun/size-of-space/

Re: Space Elevator

#153

Post by lproven »

kinduff wrote: post #2

I always enjoy Neal's pages. I found planes at high altitude very interesting, didn't know we could fly that high!

To quote Toy Story:

"That's not flying, that's just... falling with style!"

Accelerate upwards fast enough, you can so to speak fall upwards for a short while before you fall back down again...

Re: Space Elevator

#154

Post by chasingthewind »

I find it curious that the Lockheed Vega is chosen as “Amelia Earhart’s plane” since most people would probably associate her with the Lockheed Electra, the plane she was flying when she disappeared. It’s analogous to saying that Ernest Shackleton’s ship was the Nimrod…not wrong, just odd.

Re: Space Elevator

#156

Post by SSLy »

kubanczyk wrote: post #151
bombcar wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All we have to do is make the global religion require bringing a rock to a specific location; after long enough we’ll have a mountain so high it extends out of the atmosphere!

This presents a considerable risk of splitting English into several languages, none of them intelligible with the others.

have you ever been to Newcastle?

Re: Space Elevator

#157

Post by lproven »

mechanicum wrote: post #148
CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's odd. The first episode was the only one I watched and I don't remember that bit. It might have grabbed me. I think it's the first episode of season 2 or 3, not the first season. I remember someone else mentioning it, but I've only seen season 1 and don't recall that either.

Definitely S01E01, @ ~55-58 minutes. I just watched it.

Huh. OK then. I was not taken by it and don't really want to watch it again, or the whole thing, so I will take your word.

Re: Space Elevator

#158

Post by messe »

jvanderbot wrote: post #143

Very cool. One thing I wish was better shown: space is close, it's just hard to go up. Our liveable breathable atmosphere is razor thin compared to the size of earth. In most cases, 100km is less than the distance between sizeable metropolitan areas. It's a day long bike ride. Air runs out less than a bus ride across town. A 15k jog/hike would put you in the stratosphere. Those jet aircraft that seem so high are clos…

> it's just hard to go up

Going up is the comparatively easy part, it's not exactly rocket science. Going fast enough sideways so you stay up there is the tricky bit.

Re: Space Elevator

#159

Post by lproven »

Metacelsus wrote: post #87
lproven wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's odd. The first episode was the only one I watched and I don't remember that bit. It might have grabbed me. A terrorist attack on a space elevator is a pivotal plot point in Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, which IMHO is a better work in basically every way than Asimov's magnum opus.

Doesn't the space elevator attack happen in Red Mars not Blue Mars?

I happily defer. I've reread the trilogy 6 times now and they do all blur together a bit.

You look to be right:

https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/space-elevator

And I'm not the only one to notice the cross-reference:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kimstanleyrobinson/comments/pv6zh9/...

Re: Space Elevator

#160

Post by michaelbuckbee »

isgb wrote: post #133

> Space elevators are actually a possible idea being considered by scientists. > The hard part is making a strong enough cable. And finding enough elevator music... Most engineers would bring up a lot more issues than just finding a strong cable. Also, most attempts with e.g. carbon nanotubes have been abandoned ages ago https://www.newscientist.com/article/2093356-carbon-nanotube... . - We don't have a good ascent m…

In John Scalzi's Old Man's War, there is a discussion of how the more advanced society that they're interacting with deliberately put a space elevator on Earth, not because it was the easiest or cheapest solution, but as a sort of constant reminder of just how much more technologically sophisticated they were.
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