2 ms·
Google was reported to be looking into this a few years ago. And determined that there was no material strong enough at the time. https://www.extremetech.co
by DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago
Google was reported to be looking into this a few years ago. And determined that there was no material strong enough at the time.
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/180682-google-x-admits-its-working-on-a-space-elevator-teleportation-hoverboards https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/180682-google-x-admits-i...
That aside, how might adversaries disrupt such an expensive and precarious venture? Seems a very hard to defend machine.
- ObsoleteNerd 8y ago99% of the comments about this story online think that they're talking about making one NOW. They don't think they can do it now. They're starting initial research into a few isolated systems required to do it one day in the future when materials science and all the other aspects catch up. It will take decades of R&D, but someone might as well start on the bits we can do now, like a system for climbing the tether (which this is, and it's being done purely in space).
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y agoFair enough. We have to start somewhere. Perhaps a tether climbing rig will be be useful in future megacity skyscrapers.
- djsumdog 8y agoThe base tether point would need to be far away from anything! In the book Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, one is placed in Trinidad and Tobago. The most dangerous part would be slowly dropping the cable; lower it to the point where it could be pulled into a magnetic clamp -- without destroying everything in its path.