Better Fullerene sorting through clever electrochemistry: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-03zt.html
I'm relieved -- I was afraid they'd give up and just ship all those buckytubes off to Bangladesh to be sorted by hand. ;-) If space elevators precede an ice-drilling expedition to Europa (they may well; a terrestrial elevator may even be a technological prerequisite for such an ambitious mission) they might help solve the Europa surface power supply problem. A space elevator dropping to the surface of Europa could double as a generator, if it had an electrical conductor running up through it, sweeping up power from Jupiter's magnetic field, sapping the rotational energy of both Jupiter and Europa to supply all electrical energy needs. Buckytubes have interesting conductive properties, so the elevator ribbon itself might be the ticket. Or is my E&M broken, here? Maybe there are some tricky orbital mechanics by which it could catch payloads sent to it from Earth or nearby, out at the counterweight, without deceleration, so that getting stuff to Europa's surface wouldn't be a serious hassle. (But that may be asking too much. What do I know about orbital mechanics?) Many of the issues that bedevil space elevator design (weather, lightning strikes, dodging space debris) are non-issues for Europa. One possible exception: radiation -- I don't know how buckytube-woven fabrics would stand up to what Jupiter puts out. Another possible problem: the lack of a local supply of carbon, if you needed to beef up a bootstrap elevator after initial deployment. A Europan space elevator would be much smaller than a terrestrial one, but it would still be much an awful lot of gear to send out as far as Jupiter. Still, with a terrestrial space elevator used as a sling, offering $100/lb launch costs, the issue of sending big payloads to odd corners of the solar system may become relatively negligible. -michael turner [EMAIL PROTECTED] == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
