This ARTICLE .. from the TIMES of LONDON of all places.. talks about the Japanese investing a pretty small amount of money (a fraction of what our financial mess is costing) to create a practical Space Elevator. Like so many, this engineering idea always caught me as a lot more practical than blasting chemicals to create thrust. It's worth reading! This one engineering project could literally change the world...
Change the world... hmmm... I sense a sequel to "A Glint in Time" with this theme. After all, when we left our heroes at the end of the book they already had a presence in Japan .. "Honto! Desu-ne?"
2 comments:
Frank, was it Asimov or Clark that came up with this idea? Or perhaps someone else? I read about it in a science fiction novel when I was a kid, that much I know. Very cool idea.
Hey, speaking of science fiction novels, I really liked yours. You have mastered the concept of making a novel really move, it was a page turner.
Hello, Hans and thanks for the nice comments. According to Wikipedia: "In 1979, space elevators were introduced to a broader audience with the simultaneous publication of Arthur C. Clarke's novel, The Fountains of Paradise, in which engineers construct a space elevator on top of a mountain peak in the fictional island country of Taprobane (loosely based on Sri Lanka, albeit moved south to the equator), and Charles Sheffield's first novel, The Web Between the Worlds, also featuring the building of a space elevator. Three years later, in Robert A. Heinlein's 1982 novel Friday the principal character makes use of the "Nairobi Beanstalk" in the course of her travels."
HOWEVER, the concept was first published by a Russian "The key concept of the space elevator appeared in 1895 when Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris to consider a tower that reached all the way into space, built from the ground up to an altitude of 35,790 kilometers above sea level (geostationary orbit). " And THEN it was re-invented several times after that! SO, it sure appears to be an idea whose time has come! -- FJD
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