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Building a space elevator for the moon seems doable with existing materials (see the wikipedia page). So my question is why is no country or organization interested in building one?
Building a space elevator for the moon seems doable with existing materials (see the wikipedia page). So my question is why is no country or organization interested in building one?
I guess it's partly because no one is actually planning to spend a lot of money actually getting there at all, at the mo. It may be quite 'do-able' and it sounds like a very satisfying idea from the engineering point of view BUT it would cost quite a bit more than just sending a manned expedition with a conventional launch system for returning.
In the very distant future, such a construction would be a great test bed for doing the same on Earth.
Once we've sorted out the food, the climate and the health issues, it sounds like a fab project for us to get started on. Whilst there are still people, down here, hacking each other to pieces and starving, it sounds a bit of a luxury, to me.
Building a space elevator for the moon seems doable with existing materials (see the wikipedia page). So my question is why is no country or organization interested in building one?
I'm so embarrassed at not spotting that one myself! Now, if they could just speed up the Moon's rotation a bit. . . .Forget it! The rotation period of the moon is 28 days. To incorporate the orbiting platform that would be needed for the elevator at that rate would require an incredibly high orbit (I won't bother trying to figure how high.) In any case, there are other ways of throwing an object off the moon that are so much simpler and cheaper, like for example, a maglev launcher, once the cost of getting it to the moon is solved.
KM