Jaxom
12-30-02, 09:21 PM
I was surprised in doing a search that the last real discussion of the space elevator was way back in 1999:
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=204
I bring that thread up because on it Boris asked some good questions and concerns about the space elevator that no one could really answer at that time. Well, finally someone now has the beginnings of those answers. Here's their FAQ page, which at least addresses some of Boris' questions:
http://www.highliftsystems.com/faq.html
I really hope they pull this off. If it works, it's a hell of a investment/profit ratio, compared to current launch costs.
Recent analysis also finds that the first space elevator could be built for $7 to $10 billion total, including launch costs, and a second elevator would cost a small fraction of the first. The first elevators could be financially self-supporting (including recovering the initial construction costs and the cost of borrowing this money) within the first 10 years of operation on the commercial satellite market. The recurring costs are: 1) climbers, 2) power beaming system operation, 3) low-Earth object tracking system operation, and 4) anchor operations. For the initial space elevator these recurring costs combined with repaying the initial capital investment would give us total launch costs of $100/kg ($45/lb or 1/10 to 1/100 of conventional systems).
Perhaps this for more fragile cargo combined with a high g mass driver for heavy materials could break us out into space.
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=204
I bring that thread up because on it Boris asked some good questions and concerns about the space elevator that no one could really answer at that time. Well, finally someone now has the beginnings of those answers. Here's their FAQ page, which at least addresses some of Boris' questions:
http://www.highliftsystems.com/faq.html
I really hope they pull this off. If it works, it's a hell of a investment/profit ratio, compared to current launch costs.
Recent analysis also finds that the first space elevator could be built for $7 to $10 billion total, including launch costs, and a second elevator would cost a small fraction of the first. The first elevators could be financially self-supporting (including recovering the initial construction costs and the cost of borrowing this money) within the first 10 years of operation on the commercial satellite market. The recurring costs are: 1) climbers, 2) power beaming system operation, 3) low-Earth object tracking system operation, and 4) anchor operations. For the initial space elevator these recurring costs combined with repaying the initial capital investment would give us total launch costs of $100/kg ($45/lb or 1/10 to 1/100 of conventional systems).
Perhaps this for more fragile cargo combined with a high g mass driver for heavy materials could break us out into space.