Climbing into space by the rope
RIA Novosti
Making wire ropes was the only problem, but it seems British experts have resolved it. Nanotechnologists from Cambridge have developed a flexible and very durable light carbonic thread. For the time being, they can only make one gram of this material per day, which is enough to spread the thread for 29 km.
A space elevator will require 232,000 km of the thread. It will take more than a decade before it is launched. In NASA’s estimate, the project will cost more than $10 billion, but the game is still worth the candle. Experts believe that it will cost no more than $1.5 to get one kilo of a load to space because of the space elevator’s low operational expense.
Obviously, the construction of a space elevator will become the most grandiose project in human history. A tremendous amount of scientific, technical, material and political problems will make it possible only on condition of close international cooperation.
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