RE: My Astro Photo Of The Day
November 22, 2010 at 4:58 am
(This post was last modified: November 22, 2010 at 5:05 am by Anomalocaris.)
I think the real obstacle is technology. The technology of lifting payload off the earth into transfer orbits to anywhere hasn't improved by any great margin since sputnik. Until an order of magnitude improvement is attained in this area, intensive human exploration of the moon and mars will remain so costly that it would be hard to justify its massive opportunity cost in the face of competing priorities of nations in competition. The next human extraterrestrial exploration will be same as the last and the only previous one - an ego boosting stunts by nations like china that would be discontinued once the flag is planted.
I personally don't think space elevator will be practical. 1st, there is the issue of how do you get the necessary mass up there to anchor the top end of the elevator in the first place. 2nd, what contingency plans are there if the cables snap and thousands of miles of broken cables come crashing down and wrapping forwards onto the ground? 3rd, space elevator doesn't work for free, you need to compensate for the loss of average angular momentum everytime you hoist something up there. Otherwise the elevator, instead of sticking straight up, will start to gradually wind backwards around the earth.
I personally don't think space elevator will be practical. 1st, there is the issue of how do you get the necessary mass up there to anchor the top end of the elevator in the first place. 2nd, what contingency plans are there if the cables snap and thousands of miles of broken cables come crashing down and wrapping forwards onto the ground? 3rd, space elevator doesn't work for free, you need to compensate for the loss of average angular momentum everytime you hoist something up there. Otherwise the elevator, instead of sticking straight up, will start to gradually wind backwards around the earth.
