One week in an elevator

[Jangler]

http://www.itwire.com/science-news/space/53004-japan-may-build-space-elevator-by-2050

The Obayashi Corporation in Japan says it can use carbon nanotube technology to build a space elevator into space – extending from Earth’s surface to more than 96,000 kilometers (59,520 miles) in altitude. And they hope to do it by 2050. My fingers are crossed in anticipation!

Nanotube technology consists of material that is over twenty times stronger than steel. Nanotubes are based on carbon or other elements.

These nanotube systems consist of graphitic layers seamlessly wrapped into cylinders, only a few nanometers in diameter (with one nanometer being one-billionth of a meter in length).

Company officials at Obayashi gave details of a trip in the Space Elevator, saying up to thirty passengers could be taken at one time for the ride straight up into space.

Passengers would travel at a speed of about 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour, which means the trip would take over seven days to complete.

[CarolinaAllDay]

i wonder if i can take one to your house to play madden

[jasonluckydog]

I bet someone is going to be pissed when the door finally opens and they step out in space....floating around and poo.

[Dpantherman]

Sounds like a trap...

[Mother Grabber]

Didn't Willy Wonka have one of those 50 years ago? And he didn't need public funding to make it either!

[Jangler]

Sounds like a trap...

[Boltergeist]

It's life imitating "South Park" - the Ladder to Heaven episode

[Wither]

Then you need food, water and a bathroom. Thus a bigger and stronger elevator.

[thefuzz]

I keep imagining a basketball spinning around with a coffee straw attached.

Does not seem possible at all.

[Epistaxis]

Arthur C. Clarke is the man.

Geosynchronous satellite sytem...check.

Now something right out of Fountains of Paradise.

A concept that isn't new, but is very cool.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/

[Hugor Hill]

as long as the devil isn't in the elevator, it sounds like something fun!

[Darth Biscuit]

I keep imagining a basketball spinning around with a coffee straw attached.

Does not seem possible at all.

I get the counter-balance weight thing... that seems really hard to do, but not completely impossible...

If/when we have the right material to build it, how the hell would they connect the cable from the surface to the orbital counter-balance?

[cookinwithgas]

If Aerosmith can make a new song about this it would help sell it to the public.