On Thursday 06 October 2005 05:36, thomas malloy wrote:
> >In reply to Alex Caliostro's message of Tue, 04 Oct 2005 09:55:22
> >-0600:
>
> Robin van Spaandonk posted
>
> >Hi,
> >[snip]
> >
> > >Space Elevator Concept Undergoes Reel World Testing
> >
> >This is pointless as long as there are no known materials with
> >sufficient strength to do the job (or even come anywhere near).
> >When the best we have only reaches 3-400 km, and needs to go 36000
> >km, we are still a long way short of the mark.
> >
> >Furthermore, at normal atomic separation distances, the bond
> >energy would have to exceed that of any known chemical bond by
> >about a factor of 10 to make it possible,
>
> That's how it seems to me. The people who are experimenting with the
> Space Elevator seem to believe differently.
>
> 8
to quote:
In a town full of candlestick makers,
everyone lives in the light,
In a town full of thieves,
there is only one candle,
and everyone lives in the night.
.....for the candleholder will not
show his light for fear of theft!
and to paraphrase. The folks at liftport.com and other companies working
on this, and scientists with vision like Dr. Bradley Edwards know the
potential of these buckminsterfullerenes and have tested them and found
the strength there. It yet remains to manufacture that same strength into
a continuous ribbon. Six months ago there was no ability to even make the
ribbon. Now there is. We are a forum of the scientifically curious, or at
least ideally so. I believe that the spirit of Gene Mallove is still here
among us. I have faith that a way will be found to strengthen the SWCNT
ribbon sufficiently. It may not be the theoretical ideal, as that I feel is
a kind of asymptote that is approachable but not attainable, like a tangent
value of unity is also an asymptote. The economically feasible product
that emerges might just be a acceptable margin over the minimum necessary
for practical use. There may be other engineering problems in the future,
like twist and electrical conduction. However, some new discoveries involving
quantum dots' recently discovered ability to self arrange into conductors and
non conductors at nano scale suggest solution pathways here as well.
Those quantum dots and their abilities suggest other benefits such as the
idea that Moore's law may become exponential. For those who watch
science fiction like Star Gate and have seen the fanciful 'crystal
electronics' in the supposed advanced tech equipment possessed by the
show's off planet foreigners, these crystals suggest a path for these quantum
dot circuits. These crystals can be huge megascale integrated circuits in
a crystal sheath. With wireless communication and power transmission via
the backplane, connectors become unecessary. Connectors have always been
the first line of failure in electrical circuits. Perhaps these black boxes
on the foreigner's craft and in the stargates are the future of our
electronics as well. I clearly remember when as a technician I had the
unviable task of replacing a 60 pin card edge connector in restricted space
and having less than an inch of service loop to de-solder and re-solder
and keep all the leads to the proper destinations. Wireless connectors would
be soooooo good. This is not science fiction. We are earning these
discoveries whether the easy way having them given to us and reverse
engineering or the hard and longer way doing the enabling techs first.
Standing Bear
