Re:Race on to build world's first space elevator
by herdrick on Wednesday November 19, 2008 @05:31AM
(#369358)
We can build towers that extend beyond the atmosphere? I'd like to hear about that.
Not that it matters. The top of the atmosphere is usually marked as 120 kilometers up. Let's say you can build a tower one hundred times that tall, around 10,000 kilometers high. You've only reduced the speed needed by your electromagnetic accelerator from 11 km/sec to 7 km/sec. That's still like 15,000 miles per hour.
I'm all for dreaming big, but the other ways of leaving the earth are better.
Not that it matters. The top of the atmosphere is usually marked as 120 kilometers up. Let's say you can build a tower one hundred times that tall, around 10,000 kilometers high. You've only reduced the speed needed by your electromagnetic accelerator from 11 km/sec to 7 km/sec. That's still like 15,000 miles per hour.
I'm all for dreaming big, but the other ways of leaving the earth are better.