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Space Elevator

neal.fun

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Re: Space Elevator

#191

Post by rigmarole »

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!

Related and recommended: Greg Egan “Phoresis” a sci-fi novel of two twin planets in extreme proximity to each other. (I think I read it in one of his anthologies.)

Re: Space Elevator

#192

Post by Larrikin »

joenot443 wrote: post #173
enraged_camel wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A version of this also happens in the first season of Foundation, the Apple TV series based on Asimov's novels.

Would you recommend that show to the HN crowd? The books are super well liked around here, for good reason. Apple's put out a staggering amount of content the last few years, I wasn't even aware this one debuted!

It's the best possible adaptation of the books as possible. They made some changes to allow for having main characters. In my opinion they also lighten the down side of the Mule story line and how the world works.

Re: Space Elevator

#193

Post by jmyeet »

Space elevators aren't going to happen. Not in Earth's gravity well anyway. Even if you can find a material strong enough (and that's a big "if"), you still have to traverse 50,000km to get from Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit to get the benefit.

You know what does make way more sense and is way more achievable? Orbital rings [1].

Basically, put some copper wire in space, orbit it at ~8km/s, run a current through it and then you can reset structures on top of it (magnetically) and those structures are fixed to the Earth's surface. You can technically run a cable from 100-150km up to the surface and run a gondola into LEO. This would transform both Earth transport and interplanetary travel. You accelerate something on the inside (Earthside) of the ring at ~2G, like with a maglev train, and you have enough velocity to escape the Solar System.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbI6sk-62E

Re: Space Elevator

#194

Post by raducu »

Pxtl wrote: post #176
messe wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Which is another part of why a space elevator is nifty - by definition it extends out to a distance where you are going fast-enough-sideways. Now, I have no idea how practical it is to build one (Angela Collier has a video saying it's kinda ridiculous), but it's a cool idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5aHMB4Tje4 Also since rockets have moved away from hydrolox, it would be nice to have a greener launching syste…

> Angela Collier has a video saying it's kinda ridiculous.

There are other concepts like space fountains, orbital rings and sky hooks that seem more doable -- especially the sky hook seems close to do-able, especially on the Moon.

Re: Space Elevator

#195

Post by Frotag »

bananaflag wrote: post #187
joenot443 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you recommend that show to the HN crowd? The books are super well liked around here, for good reason. Apple's put out a staggering amount of content the last few years, I wasn't even aware this one debuted!

Not the OP, but that show is a severely dumbed down adaptation of the books. For example, each short story almost completely changes the cast (of course, with some descendants of characters appearing occasionally), as befits a saga that spans centuries. No producer was willing to run with that (as they didn't believe the audience smart enough to follow it would be big enough for the show to make a profit), so they in…

> For example, each short story almost completely changes the cast (of course, with some descendants of characters appearing occasionally)

I wish directors were brave enough to kill off characters if it serves the plot. I get that there's IRL reasons that make it difficult (like contracts, scheduling, etc) but each new season accumulates more subplots to the point it's like a 30 minute episode is really a compilation of 3x 10-minute shows.

This bugs me in multiple-protagonist books too. Just feels like an excuse to pad the page count with introductions and cliff hangers every POV switch.

Re: Space Elevator

#197

Post by datadrivenangel »

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…

Skyhooks may allow for much easier access to space within the limits of likely practical carbon nanotube based structures. A rotating tether that orbits the planet could be timed to 'catch and throw' supersonic aircraft into space. Lots of engineering still required, but potentially actually feasible compared to space elevators.

Re: Space Elevator

#198

Post by rtkwe »

bananaflag wrote: post #187
joenot443 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you recommend that show to the HN crowd? The books are super well liked around here, for good reason. Apple's put out a staggering amount of content the last few years, I wasn't even aware this one debuted!

Not the OP, but that show is a severely dumbed down adaptation of the books. For example, each short story almost completely changes the cast (of course, with some descendants of characters appearing occasionally), as befits a saga that spans centuries. No producer was willing to run with that (as they didn't believe the audience smart enough to follow it would be big enough for the show to make a profit), so they in…

It's definitely got problems as an adaptation of the Foundation series where it turns one of it's biggest themes on it's head by making a few people like Gail super special and having the answer to the crises where the books were more about setting up groups and organizations so that they as a whole had an advantage or edge that would be the answer to the crises he forsaw. I think it's mainly due to them wanting to have the same people across multiple seasons where the books were free to throw away the whole cast each time. Setting up new characters is much more expensive in shows/movies than books where you can just say what someone's 'deal' is and give them internal monologues to setup their internality where shows can't usually get away with that.

I think separated from that there's a good enough show in there.

Re: Space Elevator

#199

Post by hermitcrab »

This is a really nice piece of work.

Question: Why does the Douglas Skyrocket have its undercarriage down at 25km?

Unsolicited feedback: It would be nice to be able to click on an item and see some more information. Perhaps just a hyperlink to a wikipedia entry.

Re: Space Elevator

#200

Post by tw04 »

joenot443 wrote: post #173
enraged_camel wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A version of this also happens in the first season of Foundation, the Apple TV series based on Asimov's novels.

Would you recommend that show to the HN crowd? The books are super well liked around here, for good reason. Apple's put out a staggering amount of content the last few years, I wasn't even aware this one debuted!

I’ll give apparently a controversial take. The show is great. If you’re going into it expecting the books to be the guiding source material you’ll be severely disappointed. If you go into it assuming you’re watching a show that roughly takes high level concepts from the books but is its own thing and let it stand on its own, I think it’s worth watching.
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