4 ms·
I remember attending a talk on the space elevator (besides the Japanese project), and they were thinking about using a laser on the ground to shoot at the botto
by iamwil 18y ago
I remember attending a talk on the space elevator (besides the Japanese project), and they were thinking about using a laser on the ground to shoot at the bottom on the elevator to power it up.
If it works, the trip up the elevator will probably take a couple hours, if not the whole day. When you have a bunch of people idling around for a long time, they'll want to do stuff. And in doing stuff, they might want to spend money. I can imagine the space elevator selling a part of its limited space to a store selling binoculars to look down at the earth. Or maybe some other entity like walmart or starbucks.
- apollo 18y agoWell I think the commercial aspect will probably be the ticket price for the trip. As far as for-sale accommodations during the trip, I expect them to be analogous to those you get during airplane flights: mostly refreshments. Since looking at the earth will probably be one of the main attractions of such an elevator trip, I bet most people will plan to bring binoculars, so I don't foresee a significant market for that particular item.
- Hexstream 18y agoThey could do like cinemas: you can't bring your own popcorn/binoculars.