4 ms·
A lunar space elevator is feasible with today's materials (just a whole lot of them, way too much for current technology to transport to the moon). Here's a nic
by lorenzhs 9y ago
A lunar space elevator is feasible with today's materials (just a whole lot of them, way too much for current technology to transport to the moon). Here's a nice talk by Markus Landgraf, a mission planner at ESA, at 33c3: https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8407-an_elevator_to_the_moon_and_back https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8407-an_elevator_to_the_moon_and...
- computerex 9y agoIt's not just about the tensile strength of the materials. The dynamics of a lunar elevator necessitates and extraordinary amount of weight to be used as a counterweight nevermind the length of the cables themselves. Just because something ticks the checkbox of being theoretically possible doesn't mean it's practical or feasible to build. Maybe in a few hundred years we'll have the means to build something on that scale. It still takes $10k to put 1kg in LEO, imagine the cost of transferring to the Lagrange points.
- lorenzhs 9y agoSure, the amount of materials needed exceeds what current technology can get even into LEO by several orders of magnitude. Nobody's proposing to actually build a lunar space elevator. All I'm saying is that a super-advanced civilisation could theoretically build one from the materials available to us today, which is not true for a space elevator from the Earth's surface.