WEBVTT - Can we build an elevator to space? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know? 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.360 From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.439 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.919 Bryant and that makes this stuff you shouldn't know? So 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.560 did you hear Snoop Dogg's son got a football scholarship 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.960 to I think you see? Yeah? So did h P. Diddes? 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.640 No way? Yeah? And actually Sean Combs was the first 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.239 to happen. It was about a month ago, and a 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.159 lot of people got upset because they were like, we 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:45.680 shouldn't you know, be paying for this millionaire multimillionaire son 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.800 to go to college. I should, But it was all explained. 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:51.720 The sports guys came out and really defended and said, 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.320 it's not you paying for it. It's athletic scholarships that 0:00:55.320 --> 0:01:01.320 are earned by athletes. And it's as well probably, but 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.560 it was like, basically, it's not like some kid is 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.520 missing out on an education because p DDI's son earned 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.920 a football scholarship, he should be treated the same and 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.399 so should Snoop Dogg. Sign Where was there an outcry 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.039 about Snoop Dogg sign. Uh, not as much because he's 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.360 the g you see. No one likes Puffy going on. 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.679 I don't understand. He seems like a nice enough guy. Uh, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.120 here's friends with Biggie Smalls. I was in his house once. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.560 Di'd ever tell you that I had to. I was 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.360 working on a music video with him and I had 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.600 to deliver as a p a something to his home 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.360 in Beverly Hills. And I went to the door and 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.319 I rang the doorbell and some really large guy in 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.920 a warm up suit and like a kangol hat invited 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.080 me in and took my thing and then escorted me out. 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:48.560 So I was like in the little fourier and it 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.680 was like lots of white marble, and I mean it 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.440 looked it could have been like the King of France 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.560 living there as far as I know. Yeah, there's like 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.639 a fountain of rock. It was really like pretty plush. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.080 Of course, you know he's rich. But I took your thing. 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.200 Is that legal? Are you talking about everything above the boards? Oh? Yeah, 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.880 it was. It was like a video cassettes for the 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.560 shoot or something like that. I wouldn't be delivering anything illegal. Well, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.600 I didn't know if he did something illegal to you 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.080 by taking your things. You put it. It was all 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.320 on the up. Good go and Chuck anyway, I haven't 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.600 been to Snoop's house yet, although I did see him 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.799 one night in Atlanta. You did, Yeah, I can't tell 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:29.000 that story though. He let's hear a part time, doesn't he? 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.400 I'm used to, I believe. I'm not sure what a 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.399 weird start for the show. Yeah, it is a little weird, 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.160 especially since we're talking about space elevators. Has nothing to 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.280 do with it. This is not like we're talking about 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:41.880 like p Funk or George Clinton or something like that, 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.720 or even Bill Clinton. Although I bet George Clinton could 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.200 build a space elevator in his mind. You know he 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:53.560 has many times. Chuck. Um, Well, I've got I've got something. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.200 I have an actual Yeah, it seems kind of stupid, now, 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.919 let's hear it. Uh well, okay, um five seven am. 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.120 On July twenty one, two thousand eleven. About a year ago, 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:12.560 something big ended, something that really helped with our childhood, 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.160 like really was an icon of our childhood. I'm not 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.360 even gonna let you guess. The Space Shuttle. Of course, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:24.239 the program ended. It started in one and it went 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.519 all the way to two thousand eleven, thirty great years 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:35.480 yeah um and uh more missions um. And actually, there's 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.880 this awesome thing on Gizmoto. It's you can watch all 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.360 of the Space Shuttle launches at once. It's just like 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.680 a hundred and thirty five little tiles on the screen 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.960 and it's like, you know, starting from countdown to lift 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.800 off and like it's got everything. Well, they probably don't 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.320 have the one ill fated attempt. There were two accidents, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.040 one of yeah, it's there, I think I found it, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.160 and it just goes dark at about the time the 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.680 Challenger UM exploded. Yeah. Um, but it was this was 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.720 a huge deal for our childhood. But it was also 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:09.800 you know a huge deal for the space program because 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.080 when they launched the first shuttle, I think it was Columbia. Um, 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.080 it was the first time that anyone had ever shot 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.480 a spacecraft into space and then brought it back intact. 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.320 Reusable is huge. Yeah, we're not talking like a capsule 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.320 where like Larry Hagman comes down and splashes into the 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.800 sea and then gets out, because those capsules weren't reused. 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.640 This was like we have an appropriately named space shuttle 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.080 there and back. Basically exactly. It even looked like a plane. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.159 So it was a big deal when this happened and 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:43.760 it proved like, okay, we can go to space and 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.640 back using the same equipment. It brought costs down tremendously. Sure, 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.640 they're still pretty high. Um. And then the Space Shuttle 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.200 program ends and everybody's like, how are we going to 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.200 get to space and back? Now, Obama, did you think 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.800 that's through? And uh, Obama didn't say it, but I'll 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.480 be was thinking when he was kind of skulking away 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:08.640 after being shouted at for basically closing NASA. Not true. Um, 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.840 he probably thought, have you ever heard of the space elevator? Dummy? 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.560 You should say that. Yeah. Uh, that's what we're gonna 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.000 talk about. Josh, and I thought this was a thrilling article. 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.640 You thought the article itself was thrilling. No, no, no, 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.680 the concept of the space elevator, well it is. Yeah, 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.240 the article self was a little it was a little 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.800 two thousand five. It's all outdated, but it's pretty cool. Um. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.760 So you mentioned the Space Shuttle, even though the Space 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.320 Shuttle took place over the span of what do you say, 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.760 thirty years? Yeah, anyone to two thousand eleven. The price 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.839 of getting the thing going didn't change a whole lot, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:48.000 which was pretty remarkable. Yeah, it stayed about ten dollars 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.480 per pound. Right. And they originally predicted when they were 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.240 working on the shuttle program before it started, that it 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:58.360 was gonna be about fifty million a mission. Yeah. It 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.839 came to about five million a mission. And every mission 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.880 they spent half a billion dollars on the shuttle the 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.480 Shuttle mission. Um. And uh, that ten dollars per pound 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.760 of that is fuel? Yeah? Is that the per pound 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.000 of everything on there? Yeah? I think it's just like 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.960 that kind of equation. So a lighter astronaut would be cheaper. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.880 It's really symbolic, I think, yeah. And no, I think 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.680 it's more like like if you if you take the 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:31.320 full weight of this this, yeah, and divided by the 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.240 money spent. Yes, I get it. So in theory, a 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.800 lighter astronaut would make it cheaper, but not really not really, um, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.480 because I think they had those astronauts like way down 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.960 to the Graham exactly what they wanted in a way, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.120 like they would probably be like, you need to excrete 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.200 because you're about to suit up, go excrete. You need 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:54.360 to p six ounces, right, now i'd be a great 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:56.599 astronaut then, because I can be on command? Can you 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.680 really almost always? Okay, So I've had something for you 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.119 about six ounces? Um there, have you seen the little 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.479 diagram of a solo cup? You know the lines on 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:11.360 a solo cup. Yes, their measurements. The bottom one is 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.000 an ounce, the top one so like liquor. Yeah, the 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.480 the middle one five ounces for wine. And then I'm 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:27.040 not kidding that the lowest top band is that's that's 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:31.040 twelve ounces for beer. I never knew that that's ingenious. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.520 It is. I love little tidbits like that, Like the 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.360 amount of matches in a matchbook is equal to the 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.320 amount of cigarettes in a pack. I didn't know that. 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.760 It makes sense. We should just talk about those things 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:44.840 all day instead of space all vators. No, let's talk 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.560 about space elevator. All right, let's talk about it, um quickly, 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.240 a space elevator, and we'll we'll get into the specifics here, 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.040 but what it basically is, it's a ribbon, a carbon 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.960 nano tube composite ribbon anchored to a plat form offshore 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.800 way out in the Pacific Ocean, and it's has a 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:11.320 counterweight way up in space and they basically would that 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:13.760 would be the elevator shaft, and they would send stuff 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.480 crawling up and down this ribbon. Uh two outer space. Yes, 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.680 have you ever seen somebody like a piano mover lift 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:26.720 the piano through a second story apartment that exceptance space? Yeah, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.280 that's pretty much it. I don't like the comparison to 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.040 the game of tether ball here. I thought it was 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.000 a terrible, terrible analogy, So let's just skip it because 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:35.880 it didn't make much sense to me. Yeah, I think you. 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.240 I think you said it like, basically, we're connecting a 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.520 line between a platform in the ocean and the satellite 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.719 up in space, and we're putting something on it that 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.240 can go up and down. Yeah, and the whole thing 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.400 of we should just stop right there. The cool thing 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.040 about this is to me is that every single part 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:59.040 of this is feasible right now to do except for 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.320 the one thing that they need to do it, which 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:06.800 are the carbon nanotubes that go sixty miles into space. Yes, 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.400 they're around right, but we can't make them that long yet. Right. 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.320 There's um that's I think I think that's that's a 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:16.240 really good point. Like we all of this is just 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.840 waiting and I saw a little video that Michio Kaku 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:24.000 or cucku Um made about this explaining it, and he 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.920 was saying, like everything's been surmounted now, like now it's 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.600 all in the realm of physical possibility. There's just a 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:35.240 few more breakthroughs. And it's all carbon nanotubes, which are 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:39.680 we've talked about graphine before, right, strongest substance known demand 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.840 or humankind. That's right. Um, it's one atom thick layer 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.760 of carbon, incredibly strong. It's like a hundred times stronger 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.640 than steel at about one fifth of the weight. And 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.640 a carbon nanotube is a layer of graphine rolled into 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.839 a tube like it looks like chicken wire, exactly like 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.640 a soccer ball chicken wire. Yeah, it's like like if 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:02.600 you spread out a length of chicken wire and then 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.160 roll it up nanotube. And we say soccer ball because 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.720 the shape of the traditional soccer ball, not these crazy 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.280 ones are used in these days. I don't even recognize 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.720 it as a soccer ball. Yeah, but the old school 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.280 soccer ball, that shape is the same, the same shape 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.200 as as these carbon atoms, which is the key to 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.440 it it's strength. Um. I've been at I've seen it 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:30.360 described as um stiff but flexible like a steel guitar string, 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.559 So it moves, but it's still super super strong and um. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:39.000 Even though it's just a few atoms across, they are 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.640 ten million times as long as they are wide. Once 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.240 you get this thing going, so like a guitar string. Yeah, well, 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.560 because these are nanotubes, so like they're diameters like a 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.680 few billionths of a meter I think one, is that right? Yeah, 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:58.719 because nano is a billion a billion yes, yeah, but 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.040 so so it's very thin. Um. That's the point. And 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.079 ultimately I saw that the sixty two thousand mile cable 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.160 would be It could be as thin as a piece 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.840 of seran wrap. Yeah, it would still be strong enough 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.400 to not snatch under its own weight sixty two miles. Like, 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:24.160 there's no quality of material outside of this that wouldn't 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.719 just snap like a hair, like pulling one of your 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:32.960 hairs in half. This one will. But the problem is 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:38.640 is you don't make carbon nanotubes. You grow them. Yeah. 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.520 There's a really cool Nova video too on YouTube where 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.640 it shows a guy in the lab pulling a uh 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:52.360 braided forest of carbon nanotubes and he starts pulling it 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.319 and you see it all like coalescing together, and he 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.400 gets like ten ft away and then it finally snaps 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.320 and then it just it's smaller than a human here. 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.080 It just like floats away almost. Okay, so that's that's 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.719 longer than I've I've seen. The record that I saw 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.120 was four centimeters in length. Yeah, well this was ah, 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.800 I don't think I think it was stretching. I don't 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.480 think it was the original. Okay, So they they the 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:21.320 carbon nanotubes grow and then after like that's the world 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:25.960 record four centimeters, which is like one point six inches, right, 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.760 that's short, and then it just stopped one of the 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.800 right exactly. One of the problems with them not being 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.000 able to figure out why it stops growing is that 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.480 scientists don't know why it grows in the first place. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.640 Like they have no idea. They're just like, oh, this 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.640 happens when you when you do this, um. And they 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.160 figured out that there are some things like hydrogen gas 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.680 in certain amounts makes it grow longer. Um. If you 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:54.880 do a little too much hydrogen gas, it won't grow 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.800 at all. So like there's they're they're figuring this out, 0:12:57.840 --> 0:12:59.880 but they still are really at a point where they're 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:02.320 not they don't understand carbon nanotubes at all. They were 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:07.559 only officially discovered in which is a blip in the 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.120 scientific community. But we're making headway. And like you said, 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.240 once the carbon nanotube technology is able to be made 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.440 into things that are maybe several meters long, or they 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.480 can figure out how to basically wrap it smaller pieces 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.520 together in like you know, how you insulate wires with 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:30.199 plastic something like that, without the the alloy coming away. 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.040 Then we'll be able to make this space ribbon ribbon 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.319 for the elevator space ribbon, which essentially is going to 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.840 be like there. They would braid these things together like 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.800 a rope, correct, yes, which would still be tiny though. Yeah, 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.120 so it'll either be like you know, several meters in 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.440 length braided together or really short ones braided together. But 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.920 either way, they're not just gonna make one continuous sixty 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.000 two there's sixty two mile strand yeah. The one thing 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.320 I didn't get though, if it's so small, like it 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:04.000 needs to be a certain size to have these lifters 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.559 attached to it, you know, like it can't be a 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.760 human hair, right like that? What what could you attach 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.439 to that they have to gain traction with it? So yeah, 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.800 there there. It couldn't it couldn't just be as thin 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:21.640 as plastic wrap, even though strengthwise it could be. So 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:23.680 that's one of the things they're working on, is up. 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.880 I guess so, because you have to put the lifter 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.080 on it, like you're saying, so the lifts are all 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.000 from now on, everything like this all exists. We can 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.520 make this today, you and I can make it right now, Well, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.720 let's get it into space first. What what the idea 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:39.520 is that they would spool the sing up once they 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.320 created it, they would shoot it into space with some 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.720 kind of spacecraft. Uh. Once it's in space, they would 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.160 start lowering it back to the Earth um towards the 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.760 platform out in the middle of the sea. While it's 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.920 still going out into space, right, they'd start lowering the ribbons. Yeah, 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.720 so it's it's still going in. It's going in two 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:03.480 opposite directions. Would be like some kid walking the dog. Yeah. Uh. 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.760 And eventually it gets lowered and there's a dude standing 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.480 on a platform saying all right, back it down. Then 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.200 he would take it and clip it onto a c platform, 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:16.360 although it would be much more complicated than I think 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.960 about that operations. So this platform is going to be 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.440 like four miles from any shipping or air lanes, which 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:28.760 is important in the Equatorial Pacific, and a sixty two 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.960 thousand mile long strand of rope. Even say you'd say 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.240 it's it's thick as like a cable, one of the 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.920 cables holding the Golden gate Bridge. Imagine catching that. I 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:45.160 mean it's obviously not, but still like there's somebody piloting 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.480 machine that and you I don't know how you would 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:57.520 move the counterweight around the spool so that how are 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.360 you going to get the threat? This is the most 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.000 difficult aspect of the whole program, if you ask me, 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.480 I think grabbing that that ribbon and connecting it. Although 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.360 they act like they've got that all figured out. They're like, 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.400 we had this nanotube that was this long. We're all 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.400 set to trust. Like they've got a guy out on 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.000 a platform just sitting around waiting waiting for this thing 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.800 to come down from space. So they so that guy 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:25.040 catches the ribbon, ties it off probably with a pretty 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:29.960 decent sailors not um, and then you attach the lifter 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.960 to it. Right, that's right, Um. The lifter is a 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.880 robotic thing, and basically it's it's sort of like a 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.480 train track. It uses these traction shread rollers. Uh, and 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:47.120 it would clamp onto this ribbon and through something a 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.720 little more advanced than a gasoline engine. I think, what 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.840 are they using a free electron laser to create the 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.240 energy to do this? Basically, what they're doing is they're 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.520 gonna put solar panels but made of stuff that really 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.800 absorbs light from a laser right on the bottom or 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.160 on the top, probably on both sides, and then they're 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.040 just gonna shoot lasers up and down the ribbon and 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:13.080 then that laser just powers It's basically like directing sunlight 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:18.439 onto full of photovoltaic cells and then converting that to electricity. 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.679 Then it's just plain old mechanical energy. It's like a 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.560 little motor that would crawl at a hundred and eighteen 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.399 miles an hour. Mind you, it's exactly a crawl. It 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:36.199 would shoot up this ribbon into space to the final destination, 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.200 which would be anything. I think that first they talked 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.919 about capturing an asteroid to serve as the which is 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:46.000 just is the counterweight to um What I think is 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:50.160 smart which would potentially be a satellite or the spacecraft 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:51.879 that brought it out there. To begin with. Yeah, just 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.520 unfolding or reconfiguring or whatever, and of a sudden bam, 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.879 there's your counterweight. There's the other end of the string, 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.880 right dude, that's it. I mean, after they get this going, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:06.520 they're saying it can basically be a constant operational elevator 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.520 to the sky, lifting as much as thirteen tons of 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:16.640 payload at a time in some cases humans maybe eventually. Yeah, crazy, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.399 And I guess the whole point now would be to 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:23.320 just shuttle stuff to say this. The International Space Station 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:30.920 UM supplies that kind of thing, gruel food UM, or 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.560 if you had some sort of asteroid mining operation, you 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.280 could take your daily hall to the space elevator to 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.320 be brought down. The point is this thing could be 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:46.040 used for trips to UM lower Earth orbit every day, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.679 several times a day, because I think lower Earth orbit 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:55.240 is UM between five and fifteen hundred miles, so that's 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.880 like UM four to twelve hours trip based. And they're 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.399 talking about going further than that though, right. But lower 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.200 Earth orbit is where like all of the all that's 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.800 where all the action is generally UM. The problem is 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.639 is that's also where all the space debris is. Yeah, 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:16.480 and I think I don't think we mentioned what the 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.240 best part about all this is is that it would 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.600 cost about the closest sestem I've seen is about two 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.080 d a pound to deliver stuff to outer space, and 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.399 what was the Space Shuttle costs a pound? So that's 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.840 why they're pursuing this is because it's much much more affordable. 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.280 They likened it to the Transcontinental Railroad back in the day, 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:41.200 linking space to Earth. Yeah, okay, so the problems Josh 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:46.359 avoiding um junk flying around in space, Like it would 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.520 suck if you got this thing all looked up and 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.600 some asteroid came flying out of nowhere and snapped this 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.360 thing and half well, not just asteroids, Apparently space debris 0:19:54.520 --> 0:20:00.240 UM largely refers to junk man made jump and lower 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.520 Earth's orbit is a lousy with it. Um. One, there's 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.640 a satellite, an old out of use satellite, collided with 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:11.200 a new in use satellite recently and blew it up, 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.320 and all of a sudden, two pieces became four thousand pieces. 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:17.479 And that's and nothing. That's a drop in the bucket. 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.160 It is so um. The problem is is like even 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.119 the small like one centimeter diameter piece is a threat 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:28.359 to the space elevator. Um so right now, nora D 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.280 tracks things as small as ten centimeters. Did you know that? 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.159 I didn't once I read this, but I was pretty 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.400 I was pretty shocked. But they're gonna have to start 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:38.919 tracking stuff down to one centimeter. So this is another 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.280 kind of challenge that I don't think people talk about, 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.359 is tracking space debris. Or they're also proposing that we 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:47.280 just go up there and get rid of it, like 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.000 pay contractors to go to space and bring these things 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:55.800 down and cleanup. That'd be a unique approach, right, Um 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.240 it's called active avoidance, and UM, it's pretty amazing that 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.440 you could actually, potentially, because this thing is tethered to 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.159 a C platform, moved the C platform to dodge these things. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:08.560 But that would mean that there's like some guy whose 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.639 job it is to like, yeah, joystick it. Yeah, that's crazy. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.359 It sounds very far fetched, but it's supposedly not super 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:21.560 far fetched. I mean, this company Liftport, they're they're one 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.879 of the private firms that are have been h I 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.800 think they partnered with NASA for a while until NASA, 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.720 you know, they're funding has dried up to a large degree, 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.560 so they had to scrap things like partnering with Liftport, 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:38.000 but um Liftport as of now, I think I read 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:41.320 in two thousand eleven they have sort of scrapped or 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.520 not scrapped, but they put on the back burner the 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.920 space to Earth version and they're working on a lunar version. 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:50.160 Oh yeah, so they want to put one of these 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.920 on the Moon. Um, which can be done right now. Yeah, 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.040 if they had the money, that makes sense to me. 0:21:57.320 --> 0:21:59.960 Um not as much gravity, so they don't need the 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.320 are Bonano tubes. Yeah, they could use the stuff called zylon. 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.439 It's a synthetic polymer. And apparently they could like do 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:10.119 this within the decade. Like everything's in place, it's just 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.359 a matter of doing it. So yeah, I thought about 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:16.400 having one that goes from the Earth to the Moon, 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:18.720 or one that goes from the Earth to Mars or 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:20.840 you know, and you just well and then from the 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.520 Moon tomorrow. You know, you could connect them like station 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:26.440 one is here, then you have another one that goes there. 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.400 And the ideas are going to build a bunch of these, right, 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.800 that's the idea, because if one goes down because of 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:35.879 some space to breathe, hey, no problem, We've got another 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:39.200 one that we built. Even cheaper over here in this 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.119 part of the ocean. So that's the idea. What's awesome 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.919 is this is I mean, this is far reaching, it 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:51.600 sounds futuristic, it's actually pretty smart. Simple idea like where 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.119 it's gonna build an elevator that goes to space, and 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.480 it's actually kind of an old idea. There was a 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:02.320 Russian UH scientists named Constantine see Yokowski who proposed this 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:08.359 in and then, um kind of what I think everybody 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:10.360 thought he was a crackpot for a while. They thought 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:13.720 da Vinci was too, though, yeah, actually did they No, 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:15.800 not da Vinci. They think he was a genius back 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.160 then too, probably except for his flying machine. I think 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:23.800 that's incredibility. Um. But then Arthur Arthur C. Clark comes 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.600 along and writes about this in UH Fountains of Paradise, 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.760 and he was he very clearly saw like the big 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:35.960