Comments by "Jeremy Barlow" (@jeremybarlow2291) on "Could We Build A Space Elevator? | Answers With Joe" video.

  1. What do you think about Orbital Rings? I mean there is no unobtainium problem. We can make Kevlar tethers that could withstand a 300 mile or so climb to the low earth orbit design that is most feasible. We know how to create the copper wires that would create the magnetic fields the exostructure would float on. Don’t get me wrong massive engineering feats would be required and a whole lot of math, but no unobtainium issue. Terrorist target galore too with the added drawback of 1G for anyone working or living on the ring, but with the vacuum of space and access to unfettered solar power, magnetic assist launches for deep space exploration and its usefulness as a platform for orbital construction projects would be considerable. From what I’ve seen the price tag to build a ring if done properly could be under a Trillion Hell if mass drivers were used to launch robotic asteroid mining kits and most of the construction materials were mined in space and refined on say the moon and a mass driver launched finished goods from the Moon we could probably build it for under $500 billion. Some estimates suggest that initial construction that ultimately bootstraps a complete ring could be done for under $50 billion. It doesn’t seem likely given the costs of the ISS, but there were studies funded in the early 1980s. A ring would reduce costs to $0.05 per pound according to some estimates in terms of getting goods to orbit. But what it would be really good for would be getting people into orbit. Mass drivers seem like a cheaper way to get materials aloft. People can’t handle the G forces you need to worry about with mass drivers.
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  2. One big problem is we don’t know how to create steel without a furnace that burns carbon. Hard to deal with fires in space. They are massive hazards for spacecraft.
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  3. Certainly doesn’t require unobtainium.
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  4. chexh catialo Kevlar or Zylon tethers attached to an orbital ring structure floating in a stationary position over the earth on a magnetic field generated by a wire traveling at orbital velocity inside the structure at between 80 and 300 miles above the earth are possible with current materials. The tensile strength of those tether materials have break lengths that mean they could be used for this purpose. Like I said, no unobtainium necessary! There is an engineering and construction difficulty issue to be resolved in terms of slowing the anchor points from orbital velocity to stationary speed using propulsion and magnetism to freeze the anchor points to allow the tethering. There is also a challenge of slowly lowering tether so that it doesn’t burn up at free fall speed upon atmospheric re-entry, but it is not a materials problem.
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