Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 14:57:34 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Bring a lunch for this elevator ride...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Mike B. wrote:
> At 10:35 AM 5/3/05 -0400, Michael Walsh wrote:
>
>>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/221576_liftport26.html
>
> That's amazing.  I didn't know they were so close to actually building a
> beanstalk.  I hope this doesn't turn out to be a scam.
>
> I wonder what the "lift capacity" will be?  What the life expectancy of the
> structure is (from atmospheric effects as well as wear from the climbing
> robots).  How it will be maintained and repaired.  What treaties and other
> politics might derail it.  The story did a good job talking about the
> company and the plant, but left out much of the really interesting stuff.
>
> -- Mike B.

Yeah, it looks seriously (ahem!) optimistic.  It'd take thirteen years
to write the environmental impact statement.

Also, there have been a couple of experiments on the Shuttle with
tethered satellites.  They've all failed, and from what I remember, they
still don't know what went wrong with some of them.

Biggest problem I see (outside, of course, of financing and building the
thing) is space debris.  What happens when a chunk of explosive bolt
left over from the Gemini Program hits your cable?  Yeah, the per- orbit
probability is pretty small, but you're going to be doing *a lot* of orbits.

--
Steve Smith                                    sgs at aginc dot net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."