Otis, out of this world
14th March 2006
This article from TCS Daily makes a good case for a government-paid space elevator made out of carbon nanotubes:
Most importantly, however, space elevators could save us from going the way of the dinosaurs. Sixty-five million years ago an asteroid probably crashed into the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Space elevators would greatly facilitate the detection and deflection of earth-bound asteroids. Space elevators would also make it far easier for humans to colonize space and thus survive any world-destroying disaster. As Robert Heinlein said “The earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.”
[tags]space elevators,carbon nanotubes[/tags]