Space elevator chase yields Earthly rewards (CNNMoney.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Malika Zouhali-Worrall, CNNMoney.com contributing writer
Last Updated: August 15, 2009: 12:09 PM ET

NASA has $4 million on the line for inventors creating the technology that could one day link Earth to the stars.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- On an April day in Boulder, Colo., Michael Laine sat onstage in front of a large audience, struggling to hold back tears. That afternoon he was supposed to be presenting to the attendees of the Conference on World Affairs, but at the moment, Laine was finding it hard to concentrate. "Two hours ago I lost a $3 million building," he declared to the room. "And now I don't have a place to live."

It was the seventh time Laine had gone into foreclosure in just five years, all in pursuit of an entrepreneurial dream. Always before, he'd managed to raise the cash to buy his office building -- also his home and only source of income -- back at auction. This time, he was out of luck, as was the nine-employee company, LiftPort, that Laine financed almost entirely by leveraging his property.

Two years later, Laine still doesn't regret the obsession that led him to repeatedly default on his mortgage and gamble the $140,000 he received in rental income each year. "I could have retired at 35 with a lifetime income," he says. "Or I could build an elevator to space."

Laine is one of the most devout proponents of the sci-fi phenomenon known as the space elevator -- an as-yet hypothetical alternative to rockets -- but he's not the only entrepreneur inspired by the idea. This week's fifth annual Space Elevator Conference, sponsored by Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), is bringing a host of academics, space enthusiasts and small business owners to Redmond, Wash., to discuss everything from the technology to the regulatory framework required to build a giant elevator to space.

The conference will be closely followed by the Space Elevator Games, parts of which take place at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in the Mojave desert. Teams of scientists, tinkerers and entrepreneurs will gather to test out technologies that could one day lift riders through the Earth's atmosphere toward the stars.
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more: http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/13/smallbusiness/space_elevator.smb/index.htm?cnn=yes




:wow::wow::wow: Could this be the beginning of the Web Between The Worlds ?? :wow::wow::wow:

[Xipe Totec]

1. For a beautiful description of the space elevator, read Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Red Mars—Colonization

Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever, the Ares, with a crew of whom are to be the first hundred colonists, composed for the most part of Russians and Americans. The book details the construction of the first settlement on Mars, called Underhill. A debate among the colonists breaks out about the advisability of terraforming the planet, focusing on the two extreme views personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and it should be continued, a viewpoint held by the Greens; and by Ann Clayborne, who represents the viewpoint that humankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will and Mars should be left in its original state, a viewpoint held by the Reds. Hiroko Ai represents a middle ground, believing that a new way of living could evolve on Mars, a philosophy referred to as Areophany.

The Greens eventually win out, through direct intervention in some cases, and the first steps to terraforming Mars start during the novel. At the same time, new towns are developed across the planet, increasingly open as new technologies and materials allow pressure to be contained in new ways. However, because of the greed of the transnational corporations that come to dominate and control the nation states of Earth, the new Martian towns become overcrowded and undermaintained. Several cases of sabotage of terraformation infrastructure occur, blamed on anti-terraforming forces. The situation results in a violent revolution in 2061, in which many of the First Hundred are killed, and much of Mars' infrastructure, notably the space elevator and Phobos, are destroyed. Most of the surviving members of the First Hundred are forced into hiding in the underground—in this case a literal underground shelter created by Hiroko Ai under the Martian south pole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Or read "Web Between the Worlds" by Charles Sheffield.

He and Arthur C. Clarke ("Fountains of Paradise") came out with novels centering around a space elevator at just about the same time. Clarke, who was always a good sport, acknowledged that Sheffield had the (much!) better approach to engineering the insertion/connection Earthside. Sheffield also suggested the variant of a space 'bolo' as a means of accelerating/decelerating vessels from one orbit to another.

http://www.webscription.net/p-464-the-web-between-the-worlds.aspx

And, hey there's always Wikipedia. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_(structure)

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I've always had trouble wrapping my head around the idea of

and object of that length being tethered to the Earth. What about storms and high winds? What if the platform above fell behind in its orbit for some reason and started looking more like a kite than an elevator?

It's all very exciting and I hope that it happens in my lifetime so that I can finally understand it. LOL

[pokerfan]

4. Allowing for wind loading would have to be a design factor

as is required for any large structure. Most of the tether would be outside the atmosphere and most importantly, its entire length would be under a strong tension. So while light, it would be extremely rigid.

Orbiting debris and micrometeoroids would probably pose a greater hazard. Perhaps some sort of http://www.tethers.com/Hoytether.html">Hoytether on the nanotechnology scale could be implemented.

[PavePusher]

5. Also, Dr. Robert Forward

"Future Magic"

http://www.amazon.com/Future-Magic-Robert-Forward/dp/0380898144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251060471&sr=1-1