Realunoriginal: All you would need is a jet pack/platform to hook onto the tether and you could fly all the way up yourself.
NS: I can't see how jet propulsion gets us out of the original/current rocket-style approach. I always thought in terms of electric, or electro-magnetic. But, it appears (thanks to Rick's link) that the direction these "space elevator teams" are going in now is lazar heating; the lazars being a form of projected power. I'm not sure why you'd need to project power, when you already have a cable at hand?
Rick: Presumably making a cable light enough, thin enough and strong enough for a space elevator would be quite a trick.
NS: Indeed! But, a trick that centers on, the mundane matter of, improved materials; which is an area that has provided a lot of tricks in recent history, e.g. electronic computers resulting from solid state transistors replacing impractical vacuum tubes.
Thanks for that link, Rick. I was amazed to see that anything was being done in this area, let alone research teams and space elevator design competitions. Hell, there's even a music group called, ... you guessed it, "The Space Elevators." Included in this are NASA trained people working on this, ridiculous sounding, concept. I mentioned the term ("space elevator") yesterday to my wife, and she laughed. Which is understandable, but then she generally laughs at most everything that I say anyway.
Are any Brits working on this launch approach? If so, do they call it a, "space lift"?
I'm probably bogging this thread by harping on this one method. I was hoping that this thread might encourage some other alternative launch methods I hadn't heard of(?). I remember as a kid listening to Walt Disney, on his Sunday night TV show, regularly explaining prospective ideas for reaching outer-space. In those days (mid-50's) I'm sure all the adults thought he was still in "Fantasy Land." But, in a real sense, it is 'fantasizing,' a la Verne, Asimov and Clarke, that makes "Tomorrow Land" into today's reality.
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