Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: acecharly on 06/07/2012 18:13:33
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Any thoughts
Cheers Ace
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Theoretically one could.
However, practically NO.
One of the hot research topics is the idea to create a space elevator reaching to a geostationary orbit, which puts it at 35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi) high. Just the sheer mass of a building that high would crumble the foundations.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is much lower, about 160 kilometers (99 mi).
Much more practical from constructing for Earth.
Consider at 60 miles an hour, it takes one 1½ hours to make the trek.
The stresses on such a building would still be enormous.
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When you say its only 160km to LEO it sounds very tricky and yet not that bad until the statement you make regarding it taking an hour and a half at 60 M/ph. Nice relity check there Clifford.
Lets hope one day we can manpulate the higgs field and reduce the elevators mass somehow so we dont get the crumbling. Assuming otherwise the base of such a construction would need to be a minimum of a few kilometers wide id have thought.
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I think the tallest guyed masts are about 800 meters there is a long way to go
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Long, thin buildings under compression tend to crumple - they need lots of guy-wires.
The key to Arthur Clarke's hypothesised space elevator was to keep it in tension, by putting the center of mass at geostationary orbit. The building extends out well past 22000 miles/35000 km, and must be built out from geosynchronous orbit.
The tension is higher than we can sustain with today's materials, but it is mechanically more stable than a building which is under compression.
The reality check comes with launch costs, and powering the space elevator.
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If you make them fatter at the bottom then they don't need guys ropes and they don't crumble.
Ask an ancient Egyptian for further design details.