• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Need opinions and guidance building a space elevator.

#461
sloasdaylight said:
I really don't care about how many members a particular organization has, it plays really about 0% into my decision making. It also has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not an organization has pertinent information up on its website detailing what exactly they're going to do with MY money, or whether the website is finished. I build websites for a living, and you're out of your mind if you think I would think it would be a good professional decision for any company that wants to raise money to not have a completely finished website. This project has been in the works for years you say, and yet they still can't put up the information saying how they are going to use MY money.

I don't know this Laine guy. The only information I have about him is what is posted on his website, as well as other things about his past on the internet found elsewhere. Very little of that has me wanting to give him 1 of the 2 nickels I've got to rub together.
Click to expand...

I think I read they decided to do the kickstarter campaign four months ago. There was also the space elevator convention, where Michael had some responsibilities, so yeah, the website is not quite fleshed out. They have said how they are going to use the money..


Build a robot that can climb 2 kilometers straight up.
Build a test platform of high-altitude balloons - tethered to the ground.
Our Robot (which you can NAME) will climb the test platform – and set a world record.
Let the world know that we didn’t quit, give up, or fail… we just had to ‘pause’ for a while.
Rebuild our connection with the global community of supporters.
Raise a little money to cover the cost of this specific experiment.
 
#462
mcglyph said:
I think I read they decided to do the kickstarter campaign four months ago. There was also the space elevator convention, where Michael had some responsibilities, so yeah, the website is not quite fleshed out. They have said how they are going to use the money..


Build a robot that can climb 2 kilometers straight up.
Build a test platform of high-altitude balloons - tethered to the ground.
Our Robot (which you can NAME) will climb the test platform – and set a world record.
Let the world know that we didn’t quit, give up, or fail… we just had to ‘pause’ for a while.
Rebuild our connection with the global community of supporters.
Raise a little money to cover the cost of this specific experiment.
Click to expand...

With no specifics for any of that other than that they're going to use Carbon Nano-tubes.

Also, has not this Michael Laine guy been messing around with this liftport project for some time now? Like, long enough to go bankrupt 6 or 7 times? Like I said, I build websites for a living, I know how long it takes to get things up and filled out, and as long as you actually have the information before hand, it doesn't take 4 months to get a website up and running, at least the content for it. Everything on that website looks like nothing more than filler, with no hard science.

If that's all you need from a website, and you're fine donating to them (which you obviously are), then more power to you, but do not expect that to be acceptable to everyone. Member count has NOTHING to do with a website's level of completion.
 
#467
darius8 said:
Carbon nanotubes have electrical properties, so I've read. If this was used to build a structure from the ground to the upper atmosphere, wouldn't this act as a lightning rod during a thunder storm?
Click to expand...
No because it's so high it develops its own local potential charges, which makes it a poor lightning rod.

There would however be arcs and lightning forming between sections of the elevator, just like in a cloud tall enough such as a cumulonimbus.

It is one of the issues on which serious people work regarding space elevators.
 
#468
Jazz Ad said:
No because it's so high it develops its own local potential charges, which makes it a poor lightning rod.

There would however be arcs and lightning forming between sections of the elevator, just like in a cloud tall enough such as a cumulonimbus.

It is one of the issues on which serious people work regarding space elevators.
Click to expand...

There are many reasons why Liftport plans to build towards a Lunar version FIRST.
 
#469
The following is a curtailed blurb about just one of the members of Liftport.com. It is intended to show though there are not plans (like they are going to have detailed plans ready to go on a project no has ever attempted), etc, on an unfinished website, clearly the people involved with this project are not dummies, in fact, they may even eclipse the clear acumen of the many minds which heretofore, have seen fit to grace this thread.

...is a spacecraft systems engineer who has worked on manned and unmanned spacecraft development and operations.
Professional background includes B.S. Physics, M.S. Systems Engineering, 20+ years aerospace experience. He is an EIT Engineer in Training registered in the State of California, and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
In 1981 he started work on communications satellite systems integration, launch campaigns and range safety. Later he was instrumental in developing proposals for lunar space missions for the 1990 Space Exploration Initiative. He was a member of the subcontractor teams for the Galileo and Magellan space probes, the International Space Station, experiments for Spacelab-MSL-1 and several communications satellite projects (e.g. Intelsat-6, Olympus, HS-601, HS-376, Inmarsat-2, Marecs). He worked on the Mobile Transporter, and the power system for NASA Space Station Freedom which became ISS. He is an inter-disciplinary engineer, specializing in systems safety and hazards analysis as well as mission operations. He was principal author of the NASA Guidebook for Safety Critical Software.
Was a part time technical consultant for Transorbital Corporation, the first private company licensed by the U.S. government to explore and land on the Moon. He had a key role developing the design and perigee stage for the Trailblazer imaging lunar orbiter for...!
 
#470
So one guy of reasonable intelligence has been sold on an idea? So? The beauty of actually understanding the potential problems which have to be overcome is that one can judge for themselves without appeals to authority. Do you think it would be difficult for me to find people of equal credentials who think the whole thing is laughable? Some who think its doable but not within those timescales? Some who think it'll be doable but not economically viable?

I could give you the testimonials of several very highly credentialled materials chemists who are right on the cutting edge of CNT development. I've discussed it with a few in passing in the labs, they're of the same mentality as I am. 10 years for Lunar Elevator and 20 for the From-Earth Elevator are totally unfeasable predictions based wholly outside reality. Why is the testimonial of some people who are (at the very least) emotionally attached to the project enough to convince you of it, but the countless testimonials of neutrals involved in various fields connected to the project isn't? Educate yourself so that you understand the potential problems to be overcome, use your own reasoning and intellect to suggest how you can see them being solved. Become an INFORMED representative for the project.

My position remains as it was. The Lunar and From-Earth elevators could both probably happen, but not in that timescale.
 
#475
Tituscrow said:
No. This is definitely the same. Another idea plucked from the realms of science fiction, latched onto by some crackpot with the idea that its both possible and likely.

Give it up, man....
Click to expand...

Hey Titus.

Someone named anonymous chimed in on the liftport.com forum, with all kinds of, "information", and negative insistence. Was this you? Could be, they also thought the whole idea was unworthy. Takes all kinds, yes? Anyway, the vid is actually solid, whatever your opinion of the space elevator.
 
#476
mcglyph said:
Hey Titus.

Someone named anonymous chimed in on the liftport.com forum, with all kinds of, "information", and negative insistence. Was this you? Could be, they also thought the whole idea was unworthy. Takes all kinds, yes? Anyway, the vid is actually solid, whatever your opinion of the space elevator.
Click to expand...

Hehe...I've been rumbled :)

Seriously man, what a ridiculous waste of time that would be on my part. I'm quite content to sit back and watch you all trying to put the moon on a stick.

Liftport will fail without naughty propaganda merchants like me....er....I mean 'anonymous'...infiltrating their ranks with all that common sense nonsense.

Dammit....sucked in AGAIN.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back