That.. will be interesting. When it actually happens.

The new construction materials made from carbon nanotubes have significantly increased the feasibility of such projects.

At least it should be within our lifetimes..........maybe.

Mike

This may be an extremely idiotic question with a very simple answer, which im sure it is, but how would the rotation of the earth allow space elevators to work? Unless the space station is rotating with the elevator...I might have just answered my own question. But if not please tell me

The space station would be in geosynchronous orbit, so the short answer is yes. However station would be farther out than the normal orbital radius for geostationary orbit, as the system is supported by the tensile force exerted by the stations centrifugal acceleration.

There is some very complicated physics behind it all, and a whole plethora of other problems besides, but I believe it is conceded that with current technology, it is within the realm of the feasible.

Actually, if the earth would not rotate, there would be no way this could even work. The fact that the space station has to be geostationary while the earth is rotating is the whole reason it can work in the first place. Otherwise the whole thing would just come tumbling down. Think of it like a ball on a string that you swing around.

Could you go a bit more in-depth on that analogy? Like are you swinging a ball on a string and the rotation is the only thing keeping the string taut?

Exactly. Without that rotating force, the string would go limp and the ball would fall to the ground.

so the station is the ball and elevator is the string? o.O

Pretty much.

Sometimes you'll leave extra string hanging out the end to add extra weight.

Well, thanks guys for helping me out there. I'm sure it consolidated the understanding of others as well

I think it's like this. The station is the ball, the elevator is the string, and you are the earth.

You spin around, and the ball flies away due to centrifugal force, keeping the string extended.

However, you are so immensely fat that you exert gravity on the ball. The force of your gravity on the ball, pulling it towards you, is exactly the same as the centrifugal force on the ball, flinging it away from you.

Thus the ball can remain in orbit without significant stress on the string.

(however, in reality, the string itself is immensely heavy, and exerts its own stress on itself, thus requiring materials stronger than we currently use.)

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Still, this thing is being built by a private company, right? In Japan's economy? I dont see how they can continue to secure funding for such a long time.

Presumably, those interested in rebuilding the general infrastructure of the country would be different than those around the world who are interested in making a space elevator.

Space elevators would have massive economic benefits and drastically reduce the costs of launching new satellites, for example. If one were to be constructed, it would be well worth the cost. I'd expect external funding to be readily available if the program had a realistic chance of success.

A space elevator can replace all commercial rocket launches with a lower operating cost, and probably a higher safety factor.

Japan would make a new industry for itself overnight - launching everyone's satellites.

Wouldn't call 38 years overnight but yeah, it'd create a lot of opportunities.

I find it hard to believe that in the current economy that they could convince anyone to part with the required billions on a completely untested (and untestable!) plan. Sure, we had the dotcom bubble, but that was more herd mentality. There's no space elevator bubble at the moment.

But since its apparently happening despite my incredulity, I am fascinated.

What is profitable in space anyway?

It's not like theres some exotic super mineral that we can now get hold of.

Isn't it more about there just being a whole lot of minerals and ores and such in places like the asteroid belt?

Also big space ships are easier to build in space since you don't have to first worry about getting it off earth?

Mike

In reality though, it will be a struggle unless there is more interest from the private sector. Its good its being done don't get me wrong, but until theres a profit to be made from being in space then it will be a struggle.

Once the big ships are built, where can they go? Probes have already proven theres nothing on the other planets that doesnt already occur on earth. You can't have a service industry until theres work done on raw materials either or there'll be nothing to service.

I really hope theres a grand discovery in the next 50 years because I dont want this to be scrapped.

I keep hearing that manufacturing in microgravity can do amazing things. I suspect someone could make very specific grades of allows without them coming out uneven, or make very small things easier.

Being able to launch satellites without filling the earth's orbits with even more debris would be pretty neat as well.

Though I guess that the very same debris that's already there might be a very big problem for the project. On little bit of scrap flying into the cable at high speed could immediately be the end of everything. And the biggest problem is that we can't even see these little bits of scrap, so we have no way to avoid them (yet).

Probably not. They have to consider micro-meteors when building it (the maths says that you'll probably get at least one per year), and you have to make it resistant to oxidizing agents in the upper atmosphere.

Although if there was an easy and cheap way to launch satellites, we'd do it more often, and thus contribute even more debris in the form of dead satellites that people didnt bother to decommission.