NOVA scienceNOW | An Elevator To Space? | PBS

Join NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson as he visits the LiftPort Group in Bremerton, Washington. The entrepreneurs and engineers at LiftPort think space elevators aren't just a wild idea; they've staked their corporation on the concept. NOVA scienceNOW airs five Tuesdays a year on PBS and is available for viewing 365 days a year online.

Video podcast produced by Joe McMaster and Susan K. Lewis. Edited by Nathan Hendrie and Gayle Anonuevo. Music courtesy www.wearecassette.com NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Major funding for NOVA scienceNOW is provided by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additional funding is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.

Visit the NOVA scienceNOW Web site at http://www.pbs.org/nova/sciencenow

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Space
• Science
• Technology
• Machines
• Robots
• NOVA
• Inventions
• Elevators
• PBS

[dazedandconfucious]

I wish I were born 20 years from now.

[disappears]

Idiot, your not even thinking outside the box. How would you save tens of billions of dollars by not using space Rockets. If this works, it would keep more money in your pocket. "You really need to use your brain before commenting"

[gasdive]

It's a dumb idea. A rotovator will get you to orbit in a few minutes and can be built tomorrow with existing materials. Search for Momentum Exchange Tether on Wikipedia.

[ArenThomasian]

wait how do they factor the orbit of the earth around itself and the moon

[Neverninja]

it will probably go faster in space cause of no gravity :D

[Unbeginner]

@dazedandconfucious

If I was born one second later everytime I thought that.

[thaer12345]

@dazedandconfucious That's what you would say if you -were- born 20 years from now! :D

[OhmgrownCron]

The music in this video is sick!

[Neuroglide]

I would build this from the top down. Start with a carbonaceous asteroid as your anchor.

[masluxx]

first make buckey filaments in a way that they are unbroken and as long as you want to make the cable, then make a superconductor to transmit the high amounts of power needed to climb with a load, then you will have your space elevator.

[deltaforce]

the trip itself is a vaction

[SisterLoquacious]

@djstorm75 The 'satellite' is anchored in space by a weight hanging just beyond geosynchronous orbit, where the centrifugal force pushing outward is greater than the gravitational force pulling inward.