Why I thought we'd all be living in space by now

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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