Stairway to heaven
May 4, 2005 20: 10 EST
The Everest plan to fix “Via Ferrata Style” 150mm long “step bolts” onto the second and first step (8000+ meters) to speed up the climbing for everyone is a new level to the commercialization of Everest.
Now LiftPort Inc. is gearing up to build an elevator to space. The elevator would take satellites and people to a top-floor altitude of 62,000 miles.
Explains the company:
"Today there is only one way into space: a bone crushing, overly expensive, very dangerous ride on a rocket. Years of Government bureaucracy have over complicated the space experience. Those that wish to go into space must pass rigorous physical training and be in the best of physical condition.
Current technology based on Chinese gun powder
The cost today to send someone into space is in the millions of dollars per person range. The technology is based on Chinese gun powder rockets developed four thousand years ago. This is the state of our "modern" space exploration program.
The space elevator would allow for the lifting of payloads for exploration of space. The reliability and safety of the space elevator is calculated to be much better than any rocket-based launch system. A second generation, larger space elevator (100,000 kg capacity) would allow for extensive human activities in space including a large geosynchronous station (hundreds of permanent residents) and settlements on Mars within the first few years of operation."
There you go, like it or not, future is heading our way - step by step, all the way to heaven.
The simplest explanation of the space elevator concept is that it is a ribbon with one end attached to the Earth's surface and the other end in space (100,000 km altitude). The competing forces of gravity at the lower end, and outward centripetal acceleration at the farther end, keep the ribbon under tension and stationary over a single position on Earth.
This ribbon, once deployed, can be ascended by mechanical means to Earth orbit. By releasing at specific altitudes, low-, medium-, or high-Earth orbit can be achieved. If a climber proceeds to the far end of the ribbon and releases, it would have sufficient energy to escape from Earth's "gravity well" and travel to the Moon, Mars, Venus and the asteroids. (Courtesy Dr. Bradley C. Edwards NIAC Phase 1 report).
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