Early Space Elevators

This “future history” description of (eventually) four space elevators being built is, IMHO, quite interesting.  It also shows how technology can quickly change things.  The Space Elevators described in this 2003 web piece are 1) land-based, 2) were not launched for a long time after the technology was available because of the “cost of transporting the vast mass required” and 3) the fear of equatorial countries of having “thousands of kilometers of cable falling on their heads”.  All of this thinking has changed, of course, thanks to Dr. Edwards and his cohorts…

Click on the picture or visit the website for a larger version…

4 thoughts on “Early Space Elevators

  1. Michael Laine

    notice that even with the production problem of CNT solved, that there were STILL social/political/legal/environmental considerations that needed to be met, before the elevator to space could be built… even in this fictional future.

    i am telling ya, it will be the ‘fuzzy stuff’ that makes building this thing hard…

    take care. mjl

  2. Glen

    That would be really neat to build that today, to get a birds I veiw from space is quite amazing, not to mention seeing the Earth for the first time from space.

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