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Yes. Because it's fundamentally flawed. You will not beat physics because you wish it. It will always take the same (relative) amount of power to escape earth v
by jack9 12y ago
Yes. Because it's fundamentally flawed. You will not beat physics because you wish it. It will always take the same (relative) amount of power to escape earth velocity. Shunting some of the friction to entropy on substances (wear and tear) in sizes/lengths/stresses that are affected by atmosphere and space junk, leads to a more complicated and less reliable mechanism for transport. You STILL have to fight gravity and air resistance with an elevator. It's bought you NOTHING of value to build.
- noir_lord 12y ago> It will always take the same (relative) amount of power to escape earth velocity. Not really, most of the energy in a rocket launch is used to push the rocket fuel higher so it can be burnt to push the remaining rocket fuel higher. If we could build a space elevator then the energy used to get a mass into space would be considerably lower since electric motors are much more efficient at lifting loads than rocket engines (and that assumes a mechanical method of lifting not some kind of mag lift system).