The Billiken's Bluff

NASA is looking into the possibility of building a 62,000 mile (21,150,000 stories tall) long elevator that would reach into space, a quarter of the distance to the moon. Its not as far-fetched as it sounds.



The elevator would be anchored in space and would be made of ribbons of carbon nanotubes. One nanotube string is about half the diameter of a pencil and is able to support 20 full-size cars. A "climber" would haul cargo, as well as passenger modules up and down the length of ribbon. It hangs from the ground and falls into the sky -- thanks to the Earth’s spin and centripetal force. The primary system is a ribbon attached at one end to Earth on a floating platform located in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.



The other end of the ribbon is in space. The ribbon/elevator is able to stay straight much in the same way that if you attach a ball to a string and swing it around your head the string remains taught.

Once operational a space elevator could ferry satellites, spaceships, and even humans into space using electric lifts clamped to the ribbon. Research points to a space elevator capable of lifting five-ton payloads every day to all Earth orbits, the Moon, Mars, Venus or the asteroids.



It could be ready in as little as 15 years, and cost around $10 billion. Which is a bargain, considering we spend roughly the same amount per hour financing Operation Iraqi Freedom. George W. Bush wants to put a man on the moon again by 2020. I think it would be a whole lot more interesting if that man took an elevator to get to there.



Of course everything with NASA gets stuck in a quagmire, so who knows how long it will take for this project to come to fruition. But if I see a space elevator in my lifetime I'll be one happy Billiken.