Space Elevator Miscellany…

Here are a few Space Elevator related items which have showed up in the Search Engines over the past several days…

Google, a company which has been rumored to be interested in building a Space Elevator, has formed a new venture entitled Google Ventures.  When asked by Erick Schonfeld about their interest in Space Elevators, Bill Maris (one of the fund managers) had this to say;

“Show me one that works,” retorts Maris, “and I will invest in it.”

That will be difficult, of course, until someone actually builds one.  Over at Darnell Clayton’s most excellent Colony Worlds website, Darnell had this to say;

“Perhaps the newly founded International Space Elevator Consortium could help convince Google that a space elevator is something worth investing in, as gaining the support from a public company could go a long ways towards convincing the masses that this long term project is indeed viable.”

Good idea, Darnell.  We’ll follow up…

=================================

I found this article by James Pinkerton of the New America Foundation.  In it he talks about how investing in Space exploration would be an excellent economic driver for the US.  He also discusses the China-India Space race (an issue that I’ve opined on before as a possible impetus to get India to partner up with Dubai and build a Space Elevator) and additionally talks about building a Space Elevator ourselves.  To wit;

And so, for example, if America were to succeed in building a –in its essence a 22,000-mile cable, operating like a pulley, dangling down from a stationary satellite, a concept first put forth in the late 19th century–that would be a major driver for economic growth. Japan has plans for just such a space elevator; aren’t we getting a little tired of losing high-tech economic competitions to the Japanese?

We’ll, it’s a 60,000 mile long cable, but I like the sentiment…

=================================

Finally if you’re a fan of Halo 3, they’ve released the “Mythic Map Pack“, a new set of battlegrounds.  The “Orbital” map is contained within a Space Elevator.  From the Halopedia website;

Orbital takes place inside the docking-station for Quito Space Tether, a Space Elevator that transports cargo and people in and out of the Earths atmosphere easily…

The map is located on an “empty UNSC space platform”[3], more specifically, the station atop the Quito Space Tether. The map contains plaques dedicated to Doctors Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa, the creators of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, the map also contains a lot of aesthetical elements such as windows showing the Earth, electronic devices like display screens, escalators, and even a video phone. Overall the map has a feel of advanced technology.

There are several videos of Orbital on YouTube – I thought this one was the best;

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy23_gkc32M[/youtube]