So, about that golden egg?

[unixronin]

Unless I'm badly mistaken, yesterday's announcement of a process for continuously extruding carbon-nanotube ribbon means we how have every essential technology and material that we need to build a beanstalk.  That's right, not the goose-and-giant type, the space-elevator type.  The process, developed by the University of Texas at Dallas, can extrude continuous "buckytape" up to 5cm wide at speeds up to 10 meters per minute.  Stronger than steel, weight-for-weight, but weighing only 30kg per square kilometer, it'd also make a hell of a material for a lightsail.

Arthur C. Clarke bet it would become possible soon.  Looks like it might happen even sooner than he expected.

(Article from jw1776 via technoshaman)

Comments

[juuro.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit hesitant of painting devils on the walls, but... Oh well. It is in my nature, I guess.

I'm not quite convinced of the workability of the beanstalk. Any structure that tall is subject to moderately immense external forces, e.g. from the atmospheric currents. Slender is right out. Flexibility would mitigate the forces, but it will also make for a ride that makes the wildest amusement parks look tame. Any rigid structure that tall needs to be a tower the width of a prairie state, like Clarke describes in 3001, to have the requisite structural strength.

Also, the space elevator is an excellent target for hostile activities. Damage it at one point, and you will have a rain of destruction over significant territory.

The beanstalk is a beautiful concept. It is just that I have a feeling it will not be quite as simple to implement as the more enthusiastic proponents seem to imply.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I would be the last person to assert there aren't still problems and engineering challenges yet to solve. Nevertheless, I've seen a design that appears workable and has taken at least all the environmental concerns into account, and buckytape would be an ideal material to build it with provided the tensile strength is in fact high enough. (I will note, though, that at fifty nanometers thick, it'd need a hell of a lot of laminations.)