Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
 |
Comments on Inflatable Space Tower Prototype Assembled
A twenty-foot prototype of an inflatable tower that could potentially reach out of the atmosphere has fans of David Brin's Sundiver interested. (Read
the complete story)
| "Wasn't Arthur Clarke's elevator earlier? Fountains of Paradise 1979?" (Sabre Runner 6/10/2009 12:42:11 AM) |
| "It was indeed. Sundiver came out in 1980. However the technology is different. Clarke was describing a full on Space Elevator that went from the surface of the Earth to Geostationary orbit. The Needles in Brin's book are 20 mile high platforms that put rockets above most of the atmosphere before they're launched. The New Scientist article specifically describes the inflatable tower concept as an alternative to a space elevator." (Erik Nodacker 6/10/2009 5:39:43 AM) |
| "The first person to think of the idea of a space elevator was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who was inspired by seeing the Eiffel Tower in 1895. Arthur C. Clarke greatly popularized the idea by describing in minute detail how humanity might build one in his 1978 novel The Fountains of Paradise (still an excellent story, by the way!). Read more about Clarke's description of the space elevator (or orbital tower) from the novel." (Bill Christensen 6/10/2009 8:15:32 AM) |
| "'pseudo science-fiction space battles copied from twenty-century magazines' ... in the '70s and '80s, print s.f. people seemed to think they were in some kind of competition for legitimacy with other media, as part of which they would pretend TV and movies didn't exist ..." (of course the most iconic space-battle imagery was 6/10/2009 4:40:22 PM) |
| "This is soooo cool! I wonder about the winds and how the cold would affect the materials. Did model what those effects would be?" (Mickey Dee 6/15/2009 3:44:48 PM) |
| "So for the final version, put thin wire coils in the center tube every so often and you have yourself a 15km rail gun! The three outer tube diameters could be graded (biggest at the top) so that the weight of the entire structure is negative and less sensitive to wind shear. Cool stuff.
Tim Lesher Portland, OR" (Tim Lesher 6/19/2009 12:30:31 PM) |
| "Good 2003 article here on the state of space elevator development -
http://www.spacewar.com/news/materials-03w.html" (richard 6/20/2009 1:31:51 PM) |
Get more information on Inflatable Space Tower Prototype Assembled
Leave a comment:
Tediously, spammers have returned; if you have a comment, send it to bill at this site (include the story name) and I'll post it.
More Articles
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
Elon Musk Says Robotaxis Will Be Ready This August, 2024
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Moonwalkers AI-Controlled Electric Shoes
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
Steve Jobs: 'Capture The Next Aristotle - With AI'
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
No Tips! Robotic Food Delivery In Phoenix
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
Electric Catamaran 'Explorer Eco 40m' Has 'Solar Skin'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
Harvest Power From Tears And Blinking With Smart Contact Lens
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
Europa Clipper Plate Carries A Special Message
'...a universal cryptogram — yet it is one which can be interpreted by any intelligent creature on any planet in the Solar System!'
Micro-Robots Are Smallest, Fully Functional
'With a whir, the Scarab shot from the concealing shadows of the corner where it had hidden itself.'
AI Enhances Images Your Brain Sees
'I could have sworn the psychomat showed pictures almost as sharp and detailed as reality itself'
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'
DIY Robotic Hand Made After Loss Of Fingers
'I made them... with the fine work of the watchmaker...'
Cheap Drunk Driver Detection From UofM
"Look, I can drive... Start, darn it!"
Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail?
'If she starts to roll sideways — blooey! The underjets only hold you up when they’re pointing down, you know.'
Robot Snakes No Longer Stopped By Stairs
'...she dropped her hands from the wheel, took the robot snake from his box.'
Has Turkey Been Stealing Rain From Iran?
Can one country take another's rain?
