Kraftwerk is Space Elevator Music
One potential problem with a space elevator would be the issue of ownership and control. Such an elevator would require significant investment (estimates start at about US$5 billion for a very primitive tether), and it could take at least a decade to recoup such expenses. At present, very few entities are able to spend in the space industry at that magnitude.
Assuming a multi-national governmental effort was able to produce a working space elevator, many political issues would remain to be solved. Which countries would use the elevator and how often? Who would be responsible for its defense from terrorists or enemy states? A space elevator could potentially cause rifts between states over the military applications of the elevator. Furthermore, establishment of a space elevator would require knowledge of the positions and paths of all existing satellites in Earth orbit and their removal if they cannot adequately avoid the elevator (unless the base station itself can move in order to make the elevator avoid satellites, as proposed by Edwards).
An initial elevator could be used in relatively short order to lift the materials to build more such elevators, but the owners of the first elevator might refuse to carry such materials in order to maintain their monopoly.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Elevator#Political_issues
Assuming a multi-national governmental effort was able to produce a working space elevator, many political issues would remain to be solved. Which countries would use the elevator and how often? Who would be responsible for its defense from terrorists or enemy states? A space elevator could potentially cause rifts between states over the military applications of the elevator. Furthermore, establishment of a space elevator would require knowledge of the positions and paths of all existing satellites in Earth orbit and their removal if they cannot adequately avoid the elevator (unless the base station itself can move in order to make the elevator avoid satellites, as proposed by Edwards).
An initial elevator could be used in relatively short order to lift the materials to build more such elevators, but the owners of the first elevator might refuse to carry such materials in order to maintain their monopoly.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Elevator#Political_issues
posted by Tristan Tzara at 9:20 PM
1 Comments:
Such an elevator would require significant investment (estimates start at about US$5 billion for a very primitive tether
It is true that $5 billion is a lot of money, but not in the grand scheme of things. Example, BP's 'Thunder Horse' platform cost $10 billion. Private enterprise is used to financing that much debt.
An initial elevator could be used in relatively short order to lift the materials to build more such elevators, but the owners of the first elevator might refuse to carry such materials in order to maintain their monopoly.
They might, but it would not be in their best interests to do so. Consider that what the first SE did can be duplicated by other actors. It would be more costly to build an SE without the first one, but a great deal of the cost of building the first will be eaten by mistakes and engineering. With the second you know what worked, what didn't.
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