[PW] Tallest and most impossible building question

[Charles Early]

The space elevator would need to be more than 23,000 miles high, probably a 
lot higher, so that centrifugal force from the upper part is strong enough 
to hold it up (roughly speaking).  A typical height would be around 100,000 
km (60,000 miles).  According to a commercial I saw for a program on the 
Discovery Channel, the elevator trip to the top would take about three 
months, during which the passengers would be in danger of being hit by 
meteorites -- if the music didn't get them first.

At 07:36 PM 11/4/2007, you wrote:
>Sea Wasp wrote:
>
> >FERGUSON Timothy wrote:
> >
> >
> >>NASA has done some developmental work on space elevators, which are tall
> >>projected structures.  They can't make them yet, but they are past the
> >>science fiction stage in terms of their development. They are
> >>more...speculative engineering?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >       There is at least one company (Liftport) which is working on making
> >them a reality.
> >
> >
>Also Tethers Unlimited, the late Robert Forward's nonfiction company.
>
>RCB
>_______________________________________________
>Project Wombat
>list at project-wombat.org
>http://www.project-wombat.org/

Charles Early
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