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Wouldn't need an energy beam if it could be routed through cables on a space elevator, which is another thing proposed by many people to make space exploration
by bserge 6y ago
Wouldn't need an energy beam if it could be routed through cables on a space elevator, which is another thing proposed by many people to make space exploration easier.
- dave4420 6y agoLast time I checked, any sort of cable or elevator to space was impractical, given the strength and density requirements. Has that changed? Also, a cable would have to attach to the Earth at the equator, which is some distance from the UK.
- Sanzig 6y agoIt has not. Humanity is still a few materials science breakthroughs and a Nobel in physics or two away from a space elevator tether that can operate on Earth. Many have suggested carbon nanotubes, but nobody knows if you can actually practically manufacture a tether out of them.
- Shivetya 6y agoI really doubt that by the time technology lets us build a space elevator that we would actually find it worthwhile to build it, at least here on Earth. Instead those resources and technology development would be better used in creating the manufacturing processes needed to operate in space by mining the moon and capturing asteroids. You don't need a whole lot of manufacturing lifted into space before you can make it self sustaining and growing of its own work.