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A comment on Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now. Parent comment

Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by gravitycop on Saturday January 10, 2009 @06:32PM (#428532)
It is 22,300 miles to GEO. At 100 mph, a trip to or from GEO would take 223 hours, or 9 days.
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Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by jmtulloss on Saturday January 10, 2009 @06:34PM (#428533)
I guess we should go a bit faster then.
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Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by gravitycop on Saturday January 10, 2009 @06:39PM (#428538)
For faster travel, rockets tend to be chosen. What, then, would be the point of a space elevator?

By the way, the top recorded speed of a Bugatti Veyron, the fastest production car in the world, is 253 mph - on the flat. Travelling vertically at that speed, a space elevator car (we might assume it is powered by a 1%-efficient laser-beam stationed on the ground and aimed at photovoltaic panels on the bottom of the elevator car) would take 88 hours (or 3.7 days) to get to GEO.

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Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by jmtulloss on Saturday January 10, 2009 @07:47PM (#428591)
Haha, it's ok, it was a joke.

Thanks for doing the math though :).

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Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by aardvarkious on Saturday January 10, 2009 @09:33PM (#428697)
I could see humans taking rockets while all non-perishable cargo takes the elevator.
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Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by swombat on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:44AM (#429095)
Last I heard it costs some $20,000 per pound to send material up in a space shuttle. I think this would be beyond most people's commuting allowance!
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Re:Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now by gravitycop on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:51AM (#429099)
The Space Shuttle is not LEO on the cheap. The Sea Dragon does a lot better (as low as $8.90/lb, in 1963 dollars).

http://www.dunnspace.com/leo_on_the_cheap.htm

http://neverworld.net/truax

http://neverworld.net/truax/Sea_Dragon_Concept_Volume_1.pdf

http://neverworld.net/truax/Sea_Dragon_Concept_Volume_3.pdf

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