Race on to build world's first space elevator

Re:Race on to build world's first space elevator by fhars on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @02:56AM (#368019)

What are the failure modes of this technology? It appeals mosly to SF fans, and every SF fan who has read the Ringworld novels will think of cities crumbled to dust by flailing nanowires...

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Re:Race on to build world's first space elevator by demallien on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @05:02AM (#368090)

One of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books deals with precisely this, though on Mars, not Earth... It's the second book I think.

Important take home point: Failure of a space elevator is just all-round nasty on a global scale... The speeds that the cable attains as it falls, and its likely weight supposedly make for a very big impact along a very long point of impact (or should that be line of impact?)

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Re:Race on to build world's first space elevator by wlievens on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @03:54AM (#368055)

The upper half would fly off, and the lower part would burn up in the atmosphere. I think.

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Re:Race on to build world's first space elevator by jsmcgd on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @05:56AM (#368120)

I don't think it would burn up because its relative motion to the atmosphere will be zero apart from a relatively small vertical acceleration due to gravity. It would most likely come straight down on top of its base.

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