Traveler’s Notes: The Longest Way Down
May 1st, 2007
On this blog, and at other places, people have joked about bungee jumping or sky diving from a Space Elevator platform. At Voices/Future Tense, Linus Cohen writes a short piece of fiction of how this might work…
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2 Comments Add your own
1. Linus Cohen | May 1st, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Well thanks. The story came from a pet idea of mine, namely a rollercoaster down from LEO. After I saw the inherent impracticality of this, I wrote the story.
2. Bert Murray | May 2nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
The road to building a space elevator in all likelihood will have multiple paths and progress will be achieved in small increments. A ribbon based on carbon nanotubes is certainly a critical technology required to build a full blown Edward’s style SE. But there are other tether related systems, including an orbiting SE(http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6491258.html/) that could be built with technology available today. SpaceTethers.com list some other of the approaches
Also if one or more of the world’s industrial nations put their political and financial might behind the project then a system based on orbiting rings could be put in place using today’s tech (concrete and steel). See Paul Birch’s Orbital Ring System (http://www.paulbirch.net/)
Who knows what the final SE design will be or what type of technology will it use. The main point is to look at all options and don’t give up.
Bert Murray
NSS Space Elevator Group
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