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Future space

Over at L2si, the following prediction is made:

“Shortly after the space elevator opens, a new sport will be introduced — extreme base jumping. Daredevils will leap from the structure at some point above the atmostphere wearing (highly) heat resistant pressurized suits and a parachute.”

Another skeptic…

I just ran across this interesting thread, discussing the possibilty (or not) of a Space Elevator.  One of the contributors, an “nhughes1” (who states that he is a long-time Aerospace Engineer) declares that a Space Elevator is flatly impossible.  The last post on the thread is nearly 9 months old.

I’m not a Physics major, so I can’t comment on his calculations.  I wish I knew his email address – I’d refer him to the Edwards / Westling book and ask him for his comments.

Google Earth Space Elevator

I’ve not played around with the Google Earth Tool (though my 13-year old son downloaded it and creeped out my wife by being able to zoom into our house), but now I have a reason to.  Over at GoogleEarthBlog, FrankTaylor has posted a 3D Space Elevator model, GoogleEarth ready.  Very cool.

As soon as I can get my son to quit modding up his XBOX (again), maybe he can take pity on me and show me how to use this.

Maybe the NY Times Figured We Wouldn’t Notice

Dennis Byrne, a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, also has his own blog.  In a posting yesterday, he comments on how the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal reported the story of West Virginia Democratic congressman Alan Mollohand and how he’s funded numerous non-profits with taxpayer dollars.  One of the non-profits he’s funded is the Institute for Scientific Research (ISR) and, earlier today, I noted a story from another blogger stating that some of the money has been earmarked for Space Elevator development.

I think this story has legs and we’re going to be hearing more about it soon…

Stairway to Heaven: Space Elevators, Platinum, and the Hydrogen Economy.

The Space Elevator concept must be gaining traction – it’s now getting politicized.  Some weeks ago, James Miller, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Smith College, proposed in his article “Elevating Elephants”, that the Republicans should adopt a campaign plank in support of a Space Elevator.  Today at DailyKos, ManFromMiddletown posted an article that discussed energy alternatives and talked in favorable terms about the problems that a Space Elevator could solve.  The author refers to the Miller article as coming from the “Dark Side”.  He mentions LiftPort and believes that the Space Elevator should be built by an International Coalition.

Proposed: build a skyscraper

At the mensnewsdaily.com blog, Karl Lembke references the proposal for the Republicans to add a plank to their 2006 campaign in support of building a space elevator.  Karl notes that Jerry Pournelle has opined that for the cost of the first year’s war in Iraq, the US could have built and launched a solar-power satellite system.