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BarfingOnYourFace t1_ixy7he8 wrote

Reply to comment by QuestionableAI in Space Elevators Are Less Sci-Fi Than You Think by Sorin61

Guy who wrote article: aerospace engineer and physics professor.

Guy who thinks it’s stupid to the max for people who get math: some random redditor

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kopeezie t1_ixyh0fq wrote

We did the math with our professors at UPenn as a case study in mechanical engineering / material sciences. I can concur “stupid to the max”

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TomSwirly t1_ixyf9dr wrote

Your argument by authority isn't a good one.

Neither you nor the original article did the math, so I will.

The tallest structure of any type ever built is less than 1km tall.

But a space elevator would be 35,000km tall.

Historically, the height of the tallest structure has grown by less than 3% a year, on average, so we should expect a space elevator in about 400 years.

The idea that we are going to build in our lifetimes some structure that is over 35,000 times taller than any structure built by man and which requires building materials that don't even exist today(*) - this idea is completely unrealistic.

Given that we as a society are obsessed by unreachable goals like this, but seem completely uninterested in the much more modest and much more critical goal of not destroying our ecosystem and our climate almost entirely, I doubt this will ever be accomplished.

You call me when we have built a structure that is even 10 km tall and then we can talk again.

(* - spider silk exists, but it is not a human building material, and not one building has been built with it.)

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AzzaClazza t1_ixyk7sy wrote

I'd argue that's an invalid comparison. We don't build it up all the way, it's more like it's lowered to earth from orbit. We already lower things more than 10km into the ocean. Once the initial connection is made, it's a generation of building it up enough to support traffic. I don't think we'll ever see even the beginning of it but one day maybe. If we really expand into space it'll make economic sense.

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