It uses some sort of "stabilization devices" to remain upright. Presumably gyroscopes, but whatever they are they'll need to be powered. So what happens if this thing loses power, even for a short while? It collapses over a large area of land.

Mars landings in balloons has worked out pretty well.

Doesn't make that any closer to reality either.

or over the ocean.

with helium.

It's called progress.

Can't make a cake without breaking a few eggs....er...rich people....

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

And how much energy would it cost to fill this tower with air and keep it filled 24/7?

How much air would be sucked in at ground-level? How loud would that be? How large will the construction at the base of the tower be?

How much pressure is needed to stabilize the components? What kind of materials can even withstand the enormous pressure-difference at this height?




Launching at this height means nothing for gravity but LOTS for air-drag. It would make a great difference. But in the end it all comes down to money. And for the same amount of money, or less, you can build a launch-pad that is lifted to 20 km height by hydrogen-filled balloons.

Wild estimate: 8 balloons (each capable of lifting 50 tons) * $5 million + 1 launchpad * $10 million + $100 million development costs.
And no tower than can come crushing down.

Do you think they aren't asking these questions?

Could be a scam, just like Mars One. "Give us the money and we will solve the crucial technological problems as we go along."

But I detect a hint of bitterness. Am I reading you wrong?

The best way to build a space elevator is to set up a space-station in a geostationary orbit and from there to lower the rope down to Earth. While the rope gets lowered, the space-station has to ascend to higher and higher orbits so the center-of-mass stays in the geostationary orbit. Once the rope reaches the ground, you tie it up. Et voilà: a space-elevator.

A brillant plan... as long as you don't think about how to make a 300 km long rope or how to get these hundreds of tons of rope into the space-station in the first place or what happens when the rope starts swinging during descent or what happens when the rope transmits air-drag to the orbiting space-station or how strong the rope has to be to withstand debris-impact or...



This plan for a space-elevator in the OP is exactly like that: It's marvelous as long as you avoid thinking about how to actually build, maintain and operate that shit.

Am I bitter? I'm a physicist. If you make a claim like that and you don't have exemplary calculations (not even approximations on how big, what forces, what material) then expect my foot to get into contact with your extended backside.





Here's a question: How heavy is this ''balloon'' they want to pump up, the fabric? How much power would it take to pump this 20 km long tube up? How do you erect this tower in the first place?

Let's say, the radius of the tower is 100m, as depicted in the artwork, then the outer layer consists of 2*pi*100m*20km=12.6 million m^2 of fabric.
Let's say we have a nice, strong fabric with 100g per m^2 (textiles are in the range 50-150 g/m^2). Then the fabric alone weighs 1260 tons.
How are they getting this weight up into the air? How do they stabilize it?




If somebody proposes a plan, they at least should have the decency to propose what actually should be done to make that plan come true.
(By the way, mankind has the knowledge how a FTL warp-drive works. Not kidding. Mankind knows how to design and build a warp-drive. Now all mankind needs is an impossible state of matter to power the warp-field, super-strong materials for the hull of the space-ship that can withstand the apocalyptic powers of the warp-field, and the knowledge how to operate a warp-drive without turning it into an interstellar disaster. Do you see the flaw in the plan?)

I now better appreciate that the problems are truly difficult, even if I don't understand the details of why. I'm glad you took the time to answer!

Of course, scientists have their wild, speculative "what-if" discussions, but after that brain-storming comes the decisive point:

In science-fiction they wave a hand and give you techno-babble and it works. (And they always have exactly the scientific equipment they need lying around. No need to buy devices and materials that have been manufactured and prepared to exact specifications.)

In science long and tedious calculations await you to find out whether the idea you have come up with is even remotely realistic. (As Richard Feynmann said: "Shut up and calculate.&quot And after that, experiments await you to find out whether you overlooked something.

In an era of exploding population, government by anti-science idiots, diminishing oil supplies and crashing economies mankind will never colonize space in any but minor token ways. The window for exploration of space is already closing and belongs to history. By the time we wake up and realize what we've lost, there won't be any resources left to accomplish it. It will be gone forever, and the only thing we'll be able to say is "Oops! We blew it."

Dammit. Short-sighted motherfuckers suck.

write about our limited window of opportunity for getting off planet. I agree with you that the window has pretty much closed for anything beyond basic ISS stuff--and I doubt that will last all that much longer, either. As presently envisioned, space tourism would be just a few minutes of suborbital flight to experience Zero G and get a "Wowza!" look at the earth from an unusually high vantage point.

We blew it.

But the future seemed to receed after Reagan.

There still 50 miles to go before you're "in space."

Abode put it around 12 miles up....never was sure the utility of their living arrangements....

But it's still possible to see this happen. I hope get to see it. I'm only 67 years old. I became a Science Fiction fan at 17. I couldn't wait for the new century to see all those things I had read about in Science Fiction happen. I was 51 in 2000. What a friggin disappointment that and the next decade turned out to be!!

...would come to pass, mostly what I see these days is the more dystopian imaginings for our future. The US giving up the space program and hitching rides with the Russians was pretty much the last blow for me.

BTW, I'm your age, so we share a generation's reading.

Especially the religious breach into politics. I didn't see that coming at all. I was so naive.

Florida man admits flying drone into the space elevator to see if he could knock it over.

Even at the speeds of the elevators in the new World Trade Center tower, I think you are talking about an hour long elevator ride. I think it would take longer than that.

I wonder what kind of emergency evacuation safety measures could be built into the tower? Or into the elevator when you are ascending the tower.

1 Mile = 5280ft
12.2 miles =64,416 ft.

Likely could go faster if the elevator tubes are vacuums but that might create other problems.

Please?! Let them have a ride that's out of this world.