4 ms·
Space elevator trips could be agonisingly slow
- Devilboy 18y agoAs long as it's still cheap, slow is fine for most types of cargo.
- blasdel 18y agoOff-world sex could be messy, awkward
- Raphael 18y agoOn-world as well.
- zandorg 18y agoI prefer the Hacker method of just trying it, and see if it works. Also, could they try it on the Moon first?
- taw 18y agoIt works for software because compiling and running unit tests is virtually free. Trying space elevator would cost something like $100bln of dollars assuming we already had all the required tech like superstrong extralong carbon nanotubes.
- m0nty 18y ago> The culprit is the Coriolis force I remember reading about this (effect on space elevators) years ago, so I'm not sure it's a new idea.
- truebosko 18y agoIt would be awesome if we (we being, whatever country tries this first) had the money to basically build some basic system that works, although slowly, then improve on it over time. Of course, we're talking billions of dollars of raw material, not code here so I guess it won't happen until they have a for-sure method of doing this right :( Still, a very cool concept.