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I love this. Reminds me of a thread I perused once re Orbital Ring Space elevator concept, and how it seems not only possible, but almost disgustingly cheap (in
by hanselot 3y ago
I love this.
Reminds me of a thread I perused once re Orbital Ring Space elevator concept, and how it seems not only possible, but almost disgustingly cheap (in terms of the gains) with current technology. Not only would such an endeavor restore some aspect of pride to humanity, but the benefits are quite numerous.
To name a few low-hanging fruit:
The research done to make it possible, would definitely advance several fields.
The ability to access photons from outside of the atmosphere should vastly improve how much energy we could capture from the sun. Pair this with transparent solar tech designed to pass through the wavelengths that are useful to plants, and we can factory farm crops in space using fully automated systems. This could also lead to exploration of engineered crops that can withstand (and potentially absorb radiation), that may serve as a biological wall for the humans.
Obviously, it would be a given that asteroid mining would become vastly more simplified, and autonomous robotic space construction and perhaps even asteroid mining would become a fantastic way to profit from it (or/and dilute the value of existing rare earth minerals/metals).
Obviously, this would also make intra-solar travel orders of magnitudes cheaper.
Maintaining and cleaning up space debris would become substantially simpler.
Building planetary defense mechanisms (against extinction level events) would become more feasible if we have this in place.
There are obviously an enormous number of things that could go wrong with a project like this, but given a CERN or Manhattan Project level of funding and cooperation, I think we could build this in a couple decades.
This is the kind of future I would want to be a part of.
The cost estimate I think was somewhere in the trillions, but even so, the potential benefits are so vast that it just doesn't make sense not to do it, right?
In case you don't want to google the wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_ring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_ring
Don't even take my word for it. Go question ChatGPT about it.
- thechao 3y agoThe original paper for the ORS was engineered out of COTS from materials in the early 80s, designed to be built on a UK-friendly budget renting space from the US Space Shuttle program. With Space-X-like tech, it'd be hilariously cheap: especially with the new superconducting tape which didn't exist 40 years ago. Here's the thing with an ORS: why have one 350km-high ORS, when you can build a stack of ~60 of them out to geosynch? Such a stack is an ORS-Jacob's-ladder, and is a compromise between a full Clarke-style space-elevator and reality.
- limbicsystem 3y agoNever mind space elevators - we could build useful sky hooks right now (and Mars might be the best place to do it...) https://youtu.be/dqwpQarrDwk https://youtu.be/dqwpQarrDwk
- hammyhavoc 3y agoAnd so what about the downsides? The ultimate target for terrorists. If that comes down and it wraps itself around the Earth, it'll be devastating.
- falcor84 3y agoMy understanding is that it would be under tension and orbiting at beyond escape velocity, such that if it got cut off, it would fly away from Earth. Still bad, but not catastrophically. Maybe we could even recover it.
- RandallBrown 3y agoBut what happens to the tether it breaks away from? That won't stay up on its own. I'm sure you could build it in a way that it would break apart into lots of smaller pieces, but even then it seems like it could be dangerous.
- hammyhavoc 3y agoThat all assumes that it got loose at the base and not part way up within the atmosphere. If 9/11 can happen, this can happen. All that cable and kinetic energy has to go somewhere.
- londons_explore 3y agoIf a tether breaks high up, then only a few kilometers of the tether hit the ground. Anything higher burns up on the way down (since it is very thin, so surface plasma heating doesn't take long to destroy it)
- midasuni 3y agoIf your bad guys can get high enough to sever your cable, they can get high enough to do a kinetic or powered bombardment and cause magnitudes more damage.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]