Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions

Re:Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions by geuis on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @06:39PM (#12301182)

Still a lot of active research going on. The biggest issues that need to be resolved are currently with the cable material. There has been a surprising amount of progress in the last few years with creating longer carbon fibers, but its still nascent and has a minimum of 5-10 years of work. Probably much more.

Then even when the cable strength and length issues are satisfactorily resolved, there are lots of other logistics to deal with.

I think any future barriers to the elevator(s) will be more regulatory than technological in the future.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions by aetherson on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @06:47PM (#12301223)

I'm not sure what "future barriers to the elevator(s) will be more regulatory than technological" means. Like, right now, the barriers are firmly technological.

From the perspective of a hypothetical future in which all the technological problems have been solved, the barriers might be regulatory. But that seems tautological.

[ Parent | on HN ]