OT: Orbital towers

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Jon Anderson <janders@n...> wrote:

> "Sven Peter, TAD S.A." wrote:
>
> > but a few weeks ago I read in the news paper
> > the NASA investigates to build a stationary satellite. connect it

with

> > a cable to the ground station and then instead of shooting

rockets up

> > into space would lift the satellites with a elevator.
>
> This was first postulated by, I believe, Arthur C Clarke, whom I

also

> believe first postulated man-made satellites themselves.

Arthur C. Clarke didn't think up orbital towers but he has used them
in his books starting with 'The Fountains of Paradise'. In the
sources and acknowledgement section of that book he credits many
people with the idea but the earliest he knew of was a Dr. G.
Polyakov who published a paper on it in 1977.

Take a close look at it and you realize pretty quickly that the
current space programs are just an expensive hobby for the rocket
scientist. The real road to space will lie at the end of a long but
relatively cheap elevator ride to orbit.