Space elevator tests go well

Submitted by acohill on Mon, 09/26/2005 - 09:52

Initial tests by the Liftport Group of Washington state of their robotic lifter went well, and the company says the next test could use a mile high fiber composite ribbon.

Arthur C. Clarke, the writer and scientist who developed the concept of the geostationary satellite, writes in The Time of London about the potential of the space elevator.

I get a lot of skepticism about my interest in the Space Economy, but it is not space itself that intrigues me, but the potential for spinoffs. The 1960s space program spurred the development of integrated circuits, which then ignited the personal computer revolution and provided the inexpensive hardware for the Internet--arguably the thirty best years in the 225 years of the U.S. economy.

Is a colony on Mars going to change your local economy? No, of course not. But commercial spinoffs of specialized equipment and new technologies could.