Why build the Orbital Ring? It would cut our costs of going to orbit from about $2000/kg to about $1/kg. There are individual asteroids that have tens of trillions of dollars in materials on them that could be mined. One mission could easily pay for the cost of building the Orbital Ring.
We could then deploy solar power satellites in orbit above cloud cover and return the power back to the surface with near zero loss by running power transmission cables down the elevator, and sell the power at a profit.
With increased luminosity in space, enhanced exposure time, and the ability to deliver base loads, solar panels pay for themselves in only 1-2 years while having a 20 year life time.
In other words, if you put $5 trillion of solar panels into space, you get your $5 trillion back by the end of year two and a $5 trillion income stream each year thereafter.
In other words, the US could cut everyone's taxes, both personal and business, income, capital, death, or otherwise, all to 0%, not even cut any benefits or current spending, and pay off the national debt within a decade.
Good question. The Orbital Ring only goes up about 300 km, so it's not so long that you're worried about hitting the moon or anything.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Sebastian Anderson
>Let me know if you have any other questions. I get the reasons for an orbital elevator, but I don't believe your claim that we can do it with current tech.
How would we maintain it? What would be the emergency plan for ripped connections?
Ian Davis
I want this so much. Men have already invented and constructed a car, a washing machine, a dishwasher, a vacuum cleaner and mobile phone for me. Why has nobody build a space elevator for me yet?
Jaxson James
>I get the reasons for an orbital elevator, but I don't believe your claim that we can do it with current tech.
Why not? We can build it with steel and kevlar, so it's not a tech issue. It sounds like it's more of a question of engineering for you, right?
>How would we maintain it?
By repairing anything that breaks. I'm not sure exactly what you mean.
>What would be the emergency plan for ripped connections?
We can attach parachutes to it. If there were an explosion or something, most of it would burn up on re-entry.
We can also use a detachable dynamic structure, like a space fountain, for the first 20 miles or so. Something we can basically drop down if there's a hurrican coming, or missiles are on the way, etc.
Daniel Baker
The consequences would cause environmental disturbance. It can leave a nasty shadow over the earth. It can potentially be a target for opposers to hinder progress. Bird's migration patterns could be screwed over.
Plenty "towers to heavens" have been built, with little success, an elevator would have trouble being built that high. Wind could knock it over, The builders will be at risk while building this. How would we achieve such an odd build? . Many resources will be used, and there is a risk more will be wasted with trial and error.
Christopher Morgan
>Why has nobody build a space elevator for me yet?
IIRC, womenfolk got their suffrage awhile back. Call your senator.
Joshua Reyes
That's what they said 10 years ago. And 10 years before that.
Luis Brown
>The consequences would cause environmental disturbance.
What do you mean? We could eliminate coal-based power entirely, and save money. Isn't that a net economic good?
>It can leave a nasty shadow over the earth.
It's not as wide as you're thinking.
> can potentially be a target for opposers to hinder progress.
What do you mean?
>Bird's migration patterns could be screwed over.
I haven't heard of this before. How so?
>Plenty "towers to heavens" have been built, with little success
I'm only aware of one, about 5000 years ago with a guy named Nimrod. Is there something I'm missing?
>The builders will be at risk while building this
It would be constructed mostly on earth and sent up on rockets. People already die from using rockets, and from starvation and dirty water. Cheap energy would allow desalination of water and indoor agriculture which would save millions of lives.
Kevin Long
>By repairing anything that breaks. I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Here's an analogy: What would you do if one of the important support pillars of a high rise building was breaking? You can't just exchange it. Same thing goes for a space elevator. You'd need to make it so that all the support structures exist in triple or quadruple sets, to be able to replace (not repair, because that's not feasible in something like a wire) them if something goes wrong. The replacement is costly, because it will be kilometers of material. Why not just single redundancy? Because you've built a fucking slingshot that's constantly accelerating into outer space and just waiting for any of its supporting pieces to rip apart.
Also, wouldn't an in-atmosphere elevator have massive issues with friction? How would you accelerate it?
Jacob Phillips
Yes. Actually, the first journal articles demonstrating that the Orbital Ring can be built were published in the early 1980s. So it's been viable for some time.
Josiah Gomez
If you build it high enough near the equator and put a good counterweight on top, centripetal force from Earth's rotation will hold it up. Wind is only a factor at the building stage.
Wyatt Green
Yes but my point is science keeps lying about the timetables to trick young students into thinking they're going to be living in some flying car future in the next 10 years when really it's probably not even in their lifetime.
Tyler Baker
>Yes but my point is science keeps lying about the timetables
Science has already said it can be done. There's journal articles saying that. It has more to do with the politicians.
With the tether going out past geosynchronous, yes that would happen. The Orbital Ring uses electromagnetism from rotating segments to provide the tension. Thus, the tethers don't have to hold up the weight of the whole structure, they just hold themselves up.
Parker Clark
What if niggers and mudslime just launch missiles at it after its built? Trillions down the drain
Brandon Nelson
We have lasers for that already in use on ships.
Zachary Gomez
>We can build it with steel and kevlar,
no we cant, why do you think we can build it with steel and kevlar?
Brandon Powell
a space elevator is impossible
Dylan Perez
Space elevator is impossible. The orbiting space station at the end of the cable cannot be at neutral weight orbit because it has to support the emense weight of the cable, which means it has to orbit much faster to both hold the weight of the cable and be able to lift loads. But increasing the size of the cable to hold this tension creates a need for even more orbiting speed to support the increased weight, which is impossible because it can never be built large enough
