Next for Human Spaceflight

[imjustmatthew]

Originally posted by Ian W.
space elevators seem to be my choice.

why? it's simple, while a high cost to build, low cost to operate (compared to the STS). plus, it opens up space to the average person. sure, it's a lot slower, but you can send up a lot heavier stuff and a lot more stuff at once. anyway i look at it, a win-win situation. the technology is almost here, we're just waiting for someone to implement it now i think.

There are still serveral major technological hurdles with space "elevators" the biggest is structural strength, low earth orbit is 150-300 miles above earth's surface, that's awefully high for any kind of structure. Another problem is orbits, even if you can raise an object up to orbital altitude, its still not in orbit. An object must still be accelerated to be in orbit. The other major hurdle is weather conditions. Its been theorized that helium ballons could be used to hold a tower up, but weather conditions would bend and twist the tower, eventually snapping it in half. The forces of wind are so great that skyscrappers are actually designed to bend at specially designed rocker beams so they can absorb the force and oscillate with the wind.

While a space elevator might be cool, I don't think it would really be feasible.