Proposed: build a skyscraper
In this article, James Miller has a proposal.
For the 2006 midterm elections, Republicans should propose an idea so big that it stretches to the stars. Republicans should commit the government to building a space elevator by 2020.
A space elevator would essentially be a 62,000-mile cable stretching from the earth’s surface out into space. Because one end of the cable would be in high orbit, gravity would prevent it from falling back to earth. Once the cable was in place, space travelers would board an elevator-like device and ride up the cable.
A space elevator would give us access to space, both the primo Clarke orbit, and to high orbit. It would give us cheap access, less than one percent of the current cost of boosting stuff into even the lowest possible orbit.
What’s so valuable in space? Lots of things. Satellites already do incredible amounts of valuable work for us. With a cheap way to and from orbit, we could build microgravity factories to build stuff impossible to build on earth.
And there’s lots of sunlight up there — unfiltered by an atmosphere, and virtually uninterrupted by our night-day cycle. Jerry Pournelle has estimated that for the cost of the first year of the Iraq War, we could have built and orbited a solar-power satellite system. This system would beam power back to earth using microwaves, and could generate enough power to turn the US into a net energy exporter. This would greatly seriously impair the ability of countries under the influence of The Religion Of Peace to influence other countries with petroleum. It would also cause energy prices to fall worldwide, which would be good for everyone. Even, eventually, oil producing countries.
| More from Karl Lembke
Stumble It!
April 10th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
[...] At the mensnewsdaily.com blog, Karl Lembke references the proposal for the Republicans to add a plank to their 2006 campaign in support of building a space elevator. Karl notes that Jerry Pournelle has opined that for the cost of the first year’s war in Iraq, the US could have built and launched a solar-power satellite system. [...]